Woe
by Set
Summary: He thought he finally found his place in his family, but how sure is he? Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong. Sequel (As in 'go read prequel first) to 'Shadows of the Past.' Couples: CarSon, Journey, LiRic, GQ, perhaps others... 5105 FINISHED
1. Echoes

Authors Notes: What's this? Me? Trying my hand (or, as it were, fingers) at another story based on the wonderful characters of General Hospital? Why, yes. Yes it is indeed! What can I say? You don't write nearly 800 pages of story for a show and then just drop everything altogether, right? There was so much that was left to explore after 'Shadows of the Past' finally ended that I felt compelled to do a sequel, so the sequel is here. That said… those of you who don't even know what 'Shadows of the Past' is… go read it. I know, I know, its two parts long, a grand total of… nearly, or over, 200 chapters, and like I said, almost 800 pages, but if you don't read that then you won't have any idea about what is going on in this story! I worked really hard for almost half a year crafting that gem, and, dammit, I think it's a good read! Appease little old me by backtracking, would you? If you don't, then, by all means, continue reading, ask questions, and I will address them as best I can. Now then, for my returning readers (and hopefully reviewers), did you miss me?? I know it's been awhile, and I said that a sequel was unlikely, but I say many things that don't come to pass, and I waited awhile, didn't I? First of all, I want to thank everyone who read the original opus, as I have come to call it, and reviewed. Those that stopped reviewing towards the end… please tell me what you thought. I miss the reviews. I miss the reviews!!! I'm a review whore, honestly. Also, tell me what you want to see in this story. I'll do my best to craft something to your reading pleasures, provided it is within my power (if you, say, ask for Lorenzo to come back from the dead, that won't happen). I know a complaint was that I didn't give Damian enough darkness, and I look to change that, especially with the events the concluded the prior story. Now for the legal crap. I don't make any money off of this, I actually lose money because of the time I spend working on this when I could be doing something else like going out and getting a paying job. I don't own any of the characters, save for Damian Zuniga-Corinthos, his Zuniga family and anyone else who I might cook up for this story. Using them without my permission would be a very bad thing. Did I mention how much I love reviews? Well, I do. Give me reviews and I will always respond to them when I update the next time. I usually do daily chapter updates, sometimes more than one (last time, towards the end, I was doing three a day). Now then, my rant has ended… so let's get started with the story!

Story-

Port Charles, New York, Harbor Towers-

People didn't change so much in four months. At least not people that were his age. Children sometimes changed a great deal during such a short span of time, but he was no longer a child. He hadn't been a child since he was by her bedside that day when she left him. The childlike part of Damian died with his mother, and he had to force himself to become something different, something stronger, something more independent than the shy little momma's boy that he once was.

Yet, even with that cold fact, Damian knew that he had changed a great deal. He'd gone from being a parentless only child to being the son of a father who loved him dearly, a big brother to both his adopted brother and his infant half-brother, who he would gladly lay his life down for, and did at least once. More than that, he'd changed in other ways that didn't involve family in the least. He'd fallen in love with a beautiful girl who brought out a part of him that he had thought was long since gone. Maxie Jones was the most important woman in his life, and she would remain so for the foreseeable future. For Damian, Maxie was all that he needed, and he strongly felt that the bond between the two was as strong on her side as was his. Still there were more changes to the young man, who had barely turned twenty-one shortly after his arrival in Port Charles. He'd finally found himself a best friend who he could confide in and just be one of the guys with. And his name was different. Damian Zuniga was a person in the past. Everything about him now was Damian Zuniga-Corinthos, a melding of his mother and his father, a product of a union.

And all of that had happened to him in four months. But there were still so many things that also happened to him. Things that were good, things that weren't good. But, through it all, Damian knew something without a doubt in his mind, he was happy. At least a part of him was, the part of him that he thought might never actually be happy again. There was a part of him that did die with his mother, there would be a part of him that would always belong to her and her alone, but he realized that the parts of him that he thought went away with her did not, in fact, go away, they were merely sheltered, waiting for a time to come out again and show him things that he'd never felt before.

To some, he was still the same Damian that he was when he arrived in Port Charles, or when he left Los Angeles looking for a man that he only knew the name of, but for those that truly knew him, and for Damian himself, he knew that it was the farthest thing from the truth.

He watched the snow fall freely outside the window of the penthouse that belonged to his Uncle Jason and Aunt Courtney. It was enticing to him on so many levels. Something about the unadulterated specks would always appeal to the California native, who had never seen true snow fall before he came to New York.

For others, it was just another mid-December in Port Charles. Dillon Quatermaine was one of those people. He'd seen snow fall plenty of times in his life, and he was sure that he was probably seeing the same snow that he saw fall the other day, that there was some big giant cosmic recycle button that was pressed to make the snow fall. He walked over to Damian and stood beside him, snickering, "You're a real work of art, you know that?"

Damian did not return the snicker, but he did smile. "So says the boy who spends… how much time on his hair?"

"That's a secret that even you don't get to know," Dillon retorted. "You might use the information against me… take my trademark hairstyle and make it your own!"

"Why would I want your hair, Dillon?" Damian wondered, finally taking a moment to gaze at his best friend, who was only a few inches shorter than him. For all they knew, Dillon could eventually be the taller one. He was still in high school, he could hit another growth spurt. "I mean, really? I would have never thought anyone could pull off that look aside from you. I don't know how you do it, to be honest."

"I'm just special, I guess," Dillon was quick to defend his hair, as he always was. It was a part of him, a big part of him, and certainly the part of his own appearance that garnered the most attention. His hair would take second place to Georgie Jones, but aside from her, everything was inferior to the hair. "We can't have a movie marathon if you keep on looking outside the window, Damian! Come on, it's just you and me!"

"Why are we doing this again?" Damian wondered. Dillon's enthusiasm for movies was something that Damian did completely respect, but he could never actually comprehend. How could someone watch the same movie over and over? Even the movies that Damian liked weren't constantly being played in repeat. He would watch them a few times a year, on special occasions, but aside from that, nothing.

"Because we're celebrating!" Dillon threw his hands up in the air, a goofy grin appearing. "You finished your first semester in the medical program at PCU and I managed to make it through the long tedium that comes with the time between summer vacation and winter vacation! Something that I might not have been able to do if it weren't for you."

"You would have done fine without me, Dillon." Damian knew that Dillon was a lot smarter than he let on. Dillon needed to apply himself, and he did, with filmmaking. Everything else was secondary knowledge, unimportant unless he could utilize it in his Academy Award winning directorial debut. Damian understood the focus on a certain field. Medicine had been his passion since that day so long ago, but he also took the time to do his best in other areas.

"It's nice to know that I have something to celebrate," Dillon's attitude and jovialness faded and his face contorted. Something was bothering the boy, something deep.

Damian knew what it was. Dillon was still mourning the death of his grandmother. Damian remembered the morning that Courtney, her eyes welled up with tears, knocked on his bedroom door. He was still half asleep himself when she told him, but he was over to the other side of the building in a matter of moments. Georgie was the love of his life, Damian knew and respected that, but Georgie wasn't able to get there so fast and he was. Damian had never once met Lila Quatermaine, but he knew about her. Everyone who came to Port Charles and stayed knew about Lila Quatermaine. An angel given human form was a commonly used phrase, and she touched the lives of so many. In a lot of ways, Damian's own grandmother was like Lila, and it was because of that similarity that Damian was able to be there for Dillon when Dillon needed him. They didn't hug, Dillon didn't cry on Damian's shoulder, he just sat there, on the couch, occasionally shaking in grief, telling Damian about the few good times that he had managed to get with his grandmother. Tracy, his mother, had taken the boy away and he was deprived of so much because of it. She was still trying to do that, even though he was now safely away from her, under the protection of Jason Morgan.

"You going to be okay?" Damian finally inquired, giving his friend a moment. Sometimes the best way to deal with grief was to let it come, accept that it was there. He had fought that feeling for so long, and it had not been something that he wanted to repeat.

"Yeah," was Dillon's somber reply. "We should get some popcorn." Dillon, looking for any idle distraction, began to dig through the cabinets, looking for the box of popcorn bags. There was a time when Courtney and Jason had next to nothing in their shelves. A growing teenage boy was quick to change that. A growing teenage boy who loved movies brought even more change, like the television that was now safely nestled in the living room. Before, there was nothing. Jason and Courtney weren't the most avid television watchers in the world, and neither was Dillon. While a lot could be said of watching a movie in the theatre, there were movies that just weren't out yet, and because of that he needed a television.

Damian watched as Dillon moved towards the microwave, pushing the buttons for the desired cooking time. Dillon had perfected the art of popcorn making to the best of his abilities. Rare was it when there was even one burned piece or a kernel in the bag. It was a secret art, much like the hair technique. Dillon was avoiding making eye contact. Damian let it go. His best friend was hurting, and Damian knew that Dillon was well aware of the fact that he could depend on the slightly older young man as he had in the past.

Changing the subject as soon as something came to mind, Damian asked, "So, what are we watching this time?" In the time that had eclipsed since his arrival and Dillon's subsequent change of address Damian had been shown some of Dillon's most fondly adored movies. Jason had yet to watch any. Dillon had made it his mission to get Jason to watch one movie with him. So far, the odds were highly in Jason's favor.

"I'd let you pick… but I learned from my mistake." The sadness was slowly being erased from his mind as he recalled that particular moment.

"Maxie said that I would appreciate the moral lesson of Kate and Leopold!" Damian grimaced, remembering the long, drawn out time that movie brought upon both of them. Dillon took it worse. He was quite close to strangling Damian. "How was I supposed to know it was just some cleverly veiled lie so that I would watch the movie?"

"Because it has Hugh Jackman and he doesn't have claws in it!" Dillon did finally let another low laugh come out. "Repeat after me, 'Hugh Jackman with claws, good. Hugh Jackman without claws, bad.' Do you understand?"

"I get it, I get it." Damian was quick to conclude that he would never watch another movie with Hugh Jackman ever again, that way everyone was saved the trouble. "But you need to answer my question now, Dillon. What are we watching?"

"I figured we watched Marlon Brando at his best before he let himself go when we watched Streetcar, so this time we'll watch Marlon Brando at his best when he let himself go and watch the Godfather part one… is that okay?" Dillon was more than willing to give Damian a moment to consider what was said. Maybe he didn't know just how much the whole Godfather mob thing had to do with his own life as the son of a mob lord. But then again, who hadn't watched the Godfather movies? Wasn't it required?

"I've never seen it before, but you usually pick really good movies, so I'll give you this one."

Dillon's theory proved to not be true, but at least Damian was willing to give the movie a shot. "I think you'll like it. People say that two is better, and I agree with them, but Brando's in the first, so that would go with the theme. Besides, maybe all the action going on will get Jason's attention if he comes in."

"You're never going to give up, are you?"

Dillon sat down with the bowl of now finished popcorn and propped his foot up against the table, grabbing the nearby remote and turning on the television. "Quatermaine's are stubborn creatures, Damian, what can I say?"

The movie started and there was a period where everything was fine. Damian was truly interested in what was going on, then everything changed. At first it was slight, and he thought he could hide it, but each time he heard the sound go off it grated at him even more. Finally he couldn't take it anymore, "Dillon… turn the movie off… please."


	2. Remembering

Dillon wasn't sure what was going on, but a part of him did think that Damian was just kidding around. Who could really be that unnerved by fictional works? "Come on, it's just starting to get good!"

"Dillon… I'm not joking. Please." The same sound echoed in his mind over and over. The sound of the gun firing and piercing through human flesh. It was easier to deal with when it was he who saw the shooting, since he had become one who did the shooting, though, it became much harder.

Dillon waited a moment, looking through the glare caused by the screen. He could see Damian's face. Dillon should have gone with his first instinct and just not watched the movie to begin with, but he figured that Damian could handle it if he made it through the first part, which he did. His estimation was gravely incorrect, though, and his best friend was suffering because of it. Without a second's hesitation, Dillon turned the movie off, the screen going black. He got up and turned on the light in the room, illuminating the Morgan penthouse with the flick of a button. "What's wrong?"

Damian fell silent, his hand shaking only slightly. He looked at Dillon, looked at his best friend. There were very little that the two kept from one another, and the fact that Damian had shot Lorenzo Alcazar to death in order to protect his father was not one of them. Despite the protests from his father, his uncle and even his aunt, Damian told Dillon what had happened eventually. He also told Maxie and Georgie. They all knew. The people that Damian could confide in the most, they needed to know what had happened, what he had done. He was a murderer. They could all claim that it was self-defense until they were blue in the face, it did not change the fact that Damian shot Lorenzo Alcazar. He knew that it had to be done, or else his father would have been dead, and he would have died shortly after, but that didn't make dealing with the fact any easier. "Sorry… just, each time I heard the gun go off…"

"You remembered what happened with Alcazar, didn't you?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I don't think I'll ever forget, Dillon. I shot the man with my father's gun… I saw him take his last breath. The hard part isn't that I had to do it, I know it had to be done… but for me, the hard part is knowing that I did it and I didn't feel any guilt over it when it happened. I was glad that he was gone."

"How many times are we going to go through this, Damian?" Dillon wondered, feeling guilt over what had happened, but knowing full well that his best friend had nothing to do with what had happened. He didn't have a choice. Lorenzo proved to be a very dangerous person. Even though Dillon once thought of him as a casual acquaintance, he knew that, in that moment, Lorenzo wouldn't have cared about who he had to kill. At that time all he cared about was killing Sonny, and anyone who got in the way of that goal was going to find themselves dead on the ground. "You did what you had to do. Alcazar was crazy. He would have shot anyone if they were there. He would have shot me, he would have shot Georgie, he would have shot Maxie. He probably would have shot Michael. You did the best thing that you could!"

Damian didn't believe Dillon entirely. Lorenzo would have never shot Michael. His little brother was too important to Alcazar, and even more important to Carly. The whole reason that he went insane was because of the rejection that she gave Lorenzo after she found out that his plan that was supposed to culminate with Damian's own death almost put Michael in jeopardy. That fact was something that was kept from everyone. If Sonny found out he would take it out of proportion. Carly didn't mean for what happened to him to happen. The sorrow that she felt was enough to purge her of any punishment that Damian could have thought to give her. She was beating herself up enough. "If I did the best thing, Dillon, then why do I feel so horrible about it?"

"Because you're hard on yourself. Too hard, if you want me to be honest. Way too hard on yourself when you don't do anything wrong. You need to work on that."

"When you shoot someone to save the people that you love, we'll talk," Damian was slightly offended by Dillon's comment. He couldn't understand something that was deeply rooted in Damian himself. The fear that he was becoming what he hated. He loved his father, but he didn't love what Sonny did. The killing, the danger, everything that encompassed the life of Sonny Corinthos, and Damian had taken that first step towards being just like that. He came to Port Charles knowing what type of person his father was and finding that the mob boss was just a face. Sonny was a vulnerable person who did his best to keep the people that he loved safe at any cost. He even found out about the dark secret that his family in Los Angeles had hidden from him. Damian was, in many ways, a Prince of Crime. It was a fact that he tried so hard to not embrace, but with that one fatal bullet he had gone towards that path. There were times that he could tell himself that it wasn't the truth, times that he could say that it needed to be done. Times where he could blind himself to the truth. Now was not one of those times. "Why don't we pick up this celebratory movie marathon at another time?" Damian asked, getting up, "I'm not in the mood anymore."

"We can watch something else," Dillon suggested. He had more movies than he knew what to do with. Surely there was something that he could put on that wouldn't bring back the memories of the darkest time in Damian's life. Didn't he still have that copy of the Lion King? Georgie wanted to see it so bad when it came out.

"I just can't do it right now, Dillon. I'm sorry, sorry for snapping at you, too." He did feel bad that he made such a snide remark to Dillon. Dillon deserved better than that. Much better than that. "I'll see you later. If you need me and I'm not at the house, just call the cell, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Dillon asked.

"Maybe nowhere," Damian shrugged. "I don't really know right now. I might stay in the house, but I might get out and walk around in the snow for a bit."

"I could come with you…"

"Dillon, right now I'd really like to be alone," Damian smiled softly and sadly. "Thanks for the offer, but this is one of those times when I need to be by myself. See you later." Damian walked out of the door, shutting it softly and heading across the hallway. He was so distracted by his own inner torment that he didn't see Jason come out of the elevator. Jason didn't say anything, but he could see that there was something bugging Sonny's oldest son. It was rare when something bothered Damian, but Jason didn't want to overstep his bounds. Unlike the others, Damian didn't depend on Jason to fix every single problem that he had. He wasn't like Carly. He was independent, only asking for help when it was the last possible option. Jason would be there for him if he needed it, and Jason knew that Damian knew that fact.

Jason heard the door to the penthouse open and close, he walked into his own house.

"Did you change your mind?"

Jason was halted by the sound of Dillon's voice. There was still a part of Jason that found it hard to believe that Dillon was living with them. Still a part of Jason that didn't want him there, but at least the bigger part of Jason was happy that he was there. Dillon had even managed to get Jason to laugh a few times, it was certainly a change from just living there with Courtney. "What do you mean?"

Dillon, who was fiddling with television, stopped and looked at Jason, those piercing blue eyes that were impossible to read glaring into his soul. It made him feel uncomfortable, and it was made even worse because he felt bad about what had happened with Damian. "I thought you were Damian, sorry."

"I saw him when I came out of the elevator. Something was bothering him."

Dillon sighed. "I'm partly guilty about that."

"How are you guilty about that?" Jason asked, no ideas swarming in that head of his.

"We were watching a movie… I picked the movie and I wasn't thinking about it. I mean, I knew that having the son of Sonny Corinthos watch the Godfather was going to hit a little close to home, but I didn't think that…"

"You just didn't think, did you?" Jason said in the way that Jason said everything and anything. It was the kind of tone that he took with Carly, something that tended to be reserved only for Carly, but Dillon was finding himself on the receiving end of the comment now.

"Jason, I didn't mean to do it!" Dillon defended himself. "We keep on trying to tell him that what happened to Alcazar wasn't his fault, but it's really hard on him."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Jason asked. He knew how much of Damian had been shattered because of that bullet. He could only imagine what such a thing would do to Courtney if she were to do the same thing. They were so alike, it was no wonder that they were blood related. Both tried to be the moral centers in the circle of corruption and death that they lived around, and they were successful for the most part, but it was impossible to change everything about the lifestyle that he and Sonny lead. "I believe that you didn't mean to do it, though, and I know that he knows you didn't mean to do it. Just be more careful in the future, okay?"

"I'll do my best, Jason. Promise." Dillon looked at the door. "Maybe I should go over there and apologize."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Dillon, but when I saw him a minute ago, I knew that he needed his space. Your intentions are good, but if you go over there right now, the only thing you're going to do is make it worse."

"Well then what am I supposed to do?"

"You're young, Dillon. Think of something to occupy your time."

"You want to watch a movie, Jason?" Dillon took a shot in the dark, but Dillon's cold glance showed that he didn't want to. "It was worth a shot, wasn't it?" He didn't even think that he could watch anything with Jason being there. His mind was still preoccupied on what had happened. "I'm such a horrible person…"

"What makes you think that?" Jason asked as he put the gun away. He had since started locking the cabinet, something that he never did before, because he didn't want Dillon touching the gun. His cousin deserved to do something else with his life, which was why Jason agreed to take Dillon out of the Quatermaine mansion, because they wanted to make him into something that he didn't want to be. It would be hypocritical of him to do the same thing that they were doing, just with a different career choice. Besides, while he knew Dillon was responsible and not stupid enough to brandish a gun carelessly, that didn't mean that Jason trusted Dillon. Jason really didn't trust Dillon at all. But he knew that Dillon wasn't a bad person. Dillon's mother was a bad person, but Dillon wasn't anything like Tracy, aside from a cynical joke at random times.

"Because he helped me… and I go and turn around and make him miserable. I thought about her today… you know? About Lila."

"I think about her every day, Dillon," Jason remembered her face. The way that she never judged him, even for the decisions that he had made. The face that would have made him return to the Quatermaine house if she just asked, but she didn't, not really. She wanted him to do what made her happy, and even if that meant sacrificing her own happiness she wouldn't try and force her will on anyone else. It was because of Lila's wonderful spirit and gentility that Jason took her last name after the accident, it was because of Lila's personality that Jason had become the type of person who always put the needs of everyone else in front of his own. Jason missed her, more than he would ever let on. The funeral was hard on him. Really hard. Emily and Courtney helped him out as much as they could, but Jason had lost something with Lila, a part of his hope. Nobody was eternal, he just always thought that she would be there for him. She was, he knew that she was, but it was harder knowing that he couldn't drive by the Quatermaine Mansion and see her in the window.

"He helped me out when we first got the news, and he helped me earlier today when I needed someone to just be there for me, and I think I made his own problems worse."

"You didn't, Dillon. Believe me. His problem with what happened that night couldn't be made worse by anyone but him. The only thing that we can do is the same thing that he does for us, just be there for him and he'll come when the time is right."

"It's almost Christmas, Jason," Dillon changed the subject. "I only had a few Christmases with Grandma, but she always lit up when she saw the tree decorated in the mansion. When I came back here after being away that first year she insisted that I put up the star. We did it together, alone, just me and her. I knew she wouldn't judge me, but I was so nervous about doing it wrong. Like, if I made it crooked or if I dropped it or something. It had to be perfect… because I didn't want to let her down."

"You could never let her down, not as long as you did what made you happy. She told me that once and it was what got her through life."

"I'm glad I'm not at the mansion. I don't think I could look at the star on the tree and not think about her, and know that she's not with us anymore." He remembered how much he protested that something was wrong with the star that Christmas, but she constantly insisted that it was perfect. The memory caused a somber smile to spread on his face, and he looked over at Jason, who looked like he was in deep contemplation as well.


	3. Humbug

Port Charles Docks-

Why did he decide to come to this place in particular? It was peculiar, to say the least. While there was always a part of him that would love staring out into the ocean, the docks of Port Charles had a deeper, much more sinister meaning to him as a person. To him as a Corinthos. It was here that he was exposed to violence once more. It wasn't the first time, but it was the first time that he realized just how dangerous his father's enemies could have been. He had barely recovered from the trauma that came with being played as a bartering chip by Faith when there was the ambush at the docks. The ambush that he could have avoided entirely if he had just listened to his father, but he couldn't do it. It was at that very spot where he saw what could happen to the people that he cared about, at that very spot where he saw Jason get shot. It wasn't a bad wound, and it wasn't fatal, but it was still a wakeup call. Truly, in a lot of ways, it was the start of the end of that part of him. After the shooting came the jail, and when he got out he was immediately followed by the accident and subsequent kidnapping and murder. If he would have just avoided the docks, nothing would have happened. It may not have been entirely true, but he kept telling himself that just the same.

Damian looked at the wreaths that were running along the banners of the docks. Port Charles did a lot for Christmas. It wasn't anything compared to what he was used to in Los Angeles, but for a small town, Port Charles tried really hard to be festive, and it succeeded on a lot of levels. The festivity of the town could not force the people to be festive by default, though. There would always be people who didn't like Christmas, and they were entitled to their own opinions.

Ric Lansing was still reeling from the promotion that came with being the District Attorney of the town from being the Assistant District Attorney. It wasn't very easy, but his job was made a little less severe with the crumbling of both Faith and Lorenzo. Neither of them were his intended target, though. It had always been Sonny, but that might have changed. He and his brother would never meet up for lunch and discuss what it was like growing up. Even if they did, they would have entirely different stories. But just because they would never be friends… that didn't mean that he had to destroy Sonny, did it? In doing so, how many lives would he throw into turmoil? Jason, Carly, Courtney and Mike, but none of them seemed to be that important to him. No, he wasn't doing it for the adults. He was doing it for the children. For his nephews. Only one of them actually called him 'Uncle,' and if it weren't for that one, Ric might not have been as nice as he was. Damian had showed him that the hatred that existed between Ric and Sonny didn't have to spill over to the children. Michael may have hated him, and Ric understood why he would, but in time he might have learned to forgive Ric.

It didn't really matter what any of them felt. While Ric yearned for the acceptance of his big brother, he knew first and foremost that the most important person that he needed to feel accepted by was the woman who he loved more than anyone else. And Elizabeth did accept him. She was his beacon, the guiding light that showed the world that, even though there were layers of pain and suffering, Ric had a core that was capable of doing things that were good for the people around him. He had spent so much time trying to persuade people against that fact that the damage had been done. He would have to discover a cure for cancer, aids and a way to repair the ozone layer and then he would have a good shot at redemption in the eyes of so many.

Ric was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to see the box of Christmas trimming that was laying slightly in the way. Apparently the people who were decorating had not finished, and there was nothing of value in the boxes, so why would anyone want to steal something in them? Ric had no intention of stealing, nor did he have any intention of falling, but he did the latter regardless, falling to the ground, hitting the wooden planks with his full body wait and groaning, his briefcase having flung out of his hand and crashed against the ground, jarring itself open. Groaning as he moved his body, trying to return feeling to his stinging cheek, Ric grumbled, "I hate Christmas…"

"And, in the spirit of Christmas, you have been struck down by the instruments of the holiday. They've extracted their revenge." Damian moved from one of the sides of the dock down. He didn't even notice that it was his uncle until he heard the thud that Ric's body made, then when he looked down to make sure that everything was all right, he realized who it was.

"Great, just great," Ric muttered, his eyes turned up. "I suppose I can't pay you off to not give the information to your father?"

"While I'm sure hearing about how you fell flat on your face because you were clumsy would be the perfect gift for dad, I won't tell him. Promise." Damian stood over Ric, the slightest smile present. It was funny, the way that he fell, and why, nobody was going to deny that. But Damian was often thought to be too polite for his own good, and he wouldn't laugh an uproarious laugh at his dear Uncle's expense. It was because of Ric that Damian was still alive, that he was out of jail. "You want some help up, Uncle Ric?" Damian wondered, his hand stretched out as a gesture.

Ric looked at the hand for a moment, as if caught by surprise, but he knew that he shouldn't have been so surprised. Damian was the good one. The kindness that he knew that his mother possessed was a trait that was shared by her grandson, even though they never once met. Ric latched onto Damian's hand and used his nephew as an anchor, wincing softly as a pain shot down his leg. "Thanks."

"You okay?" Damian asked, all too aware of the fact that Ric had displayed some sense of pain while he rose to his feet. Nothing was broken, his fall was too clean for that, but perhaps a sprain.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just a delayed reaction." Ric looked behind his nephew, seeing his documents spread around the ground. "How many times have I dropped those damned things?"

"Sit down, I'll get them," Damian left his uncle to recover from the fall. Sometimes the smallest falls still hurt for a little while. Besides, unlike the rest of his family, Damian didn't run away from Ric when he saw his uncle. Ric was a good person, deep down. He and Sonny had more in common than they thought. The way that they lashed out against people because of what happened to them. They could help each other, if they could get away from that hatred. It was a fools dream, though. The only time they were ever together was when they absolutely needed to be together. One such case was when Damian was in the hospital. Ric had saved him then, too. In a lot of ways, Ric was his guardian, because he was there to protect Damian whenever Sonny couldn't be.

He had recovered from the accident quicker than usual. Sometimes he would joke that it was the Jason in him, despite not being related by blood, but they did act the same when they were injured. He was going to be a doctor, but he was trying to do things that he shouldn't have done while his bones were still mending. Not the smartest thing to do, but he hated feeling like he couldn't do anything for himself. He had gone too long without being dependent on people that he didn't want to go back to old habits now. The last time he was fully dependent on someone, she left him. He didn't blame her for going, of course, but it didn't make the hurt go away any quicker.

Damian bent down and looked at the files, but he didn't look at any of the names or the cases, he just looked and brushed them off in a fluid motion. The fact was that he thought about doing it just the same. He thought about taking the smallest glance at the names, trying to see if there was anything that Ric could use against his father and his other uncle, but he stopped himself from doing it. It was just another step in the path towards becoming just like his father, protecting people by using the nicest gestures and turning them into something more devious. He had already taken the major step by killing Lorenzo, he wasn't sure he wanted to do any more. In fact, he was sure that he didn't want to, but he was unsure of if he would end up not being forced to.

"Here," Damian put the files away in the briefcase and placed it on the bench, sitting on the other end of the bench. "I grabbed everything that I saw, which I hope is all of your files. You might need to get some copies, though. The snow could damage something inside there. But I'm sure that's easy enough for you to get." There was a moment where Damian said nothing, he just looked down at the briefcase and then back up to Ric. "I didn't look at any of the information in those files, Uncle Ric."

Ric's eyes didn't move from Damian. He just spoke, "You know, when people say that they didn't look at something it usually means that they did."

"I didn't look, though. I swear."

"I believe you," Ric said. "I would have never even accused you of looking at these files, Damian. I know that you're a good kid, and I know that even though the justice system has failed you in the past you wouldn't try and do something to extract revenge on it, or on me."

"Other people… wouldn't be so nice." Damian was amazed that Ric was one of the people who was on his side. Maybe Ric wanted something? It wouldn't be the first time that he tried to butter someone up just to get them to do something for him. Damian looked at Ric and shelved the thought. No, Ric wouldn't do that. Maybe to some people, but not to him. "They just look at me and see my father."

"Well, maybe if you did something about the dimples there wouldn't be a problem," Ric brushed some snow out of his hair with a quick sweep of his hand.

"I'm not kidding around, Uncle Ric…" Damian didn't find the dimple comment funny. Maybe he would have on another day, but not on that day. "I love my dad, I love him dearly, but we might not ever see eye to eye on some things, and I don't want to betray my sense of self just to make him happy."

"Is he asking you to do something that you don't want to do?" Ric didn't put it past Sonny to use his children in a way that was advantageous to him and his organization, although the idea was something that made Ric sick to his stomach. He certainly hoped that it was the furthest thing from the truth, but that didn't mean that it was.

"No, of course not… dad would never ask me to do something that I was uncomfortable with… but there's still the stigma that comes with being his son that I can't wash away. People in my classes, once they found out about who my father was… it changed how they thought about me. Some people thought that I was just getting the grades because dad was threatening the teachers. I've never been the type of person who needed help getting a good grade, and I've never even had to worry about people accusing me of doing something to get ahead, but now that I'm here… in Port Charles. Things have changed."

"I know how that is, believe me…" Ric had the same thing. The inferiority to Sonny complex. It was something that everyone seemed to deal with if they were related to Sonny. Courtney felt the same thing, he knew it. But while he and Courtney had it, they couldn't compare to how Damian must have felt. Sonny was his father, Sonny was responsible for him being in the world. "You just can't let them get to you, kid. You're bright and you're good at what you do, you know that. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"How's Elizabeth?" Damian asked. Elizabeth was his first friend in Port Charles, she was still a person that was dear to him, but Ric thought of her more than he did. Ric spent more time with her than he did.

"She's getting ready for the Christmas party at General Hospital. Audrey convinced her to spend some of her time off helping with the planning. A lot of preparation goes into getting everything ready."

"But it's for a good cause," Damian had heard about the party. He intended on being there. How could he not? His girlfriend, the candy-stripper, was going to be one of the elves. That alone would be worth a few hours of his day, but even more important to all of them was the fact that the kids managed to have something worthwhile happen for them.

"I don't deny that, I'm proud of her for doing it. Very proud of her." Ric got up, briefcase in hand. "Remind me to look around for any errant boxes of Christmas doom, would you?"

Damian glanced around the area quickly. "I don't think that we have to worry about you tripping over anything now, just avoid that box over there, it's already been acquainted with you."

"Think I should go kick it a few times?"

"I think that would be really petty. The box is just cardboard and you're flesh and bone."

"So I'd have the advantage then."

"Well, yeah," Damian didn't see what good would come from bashing the box a few times, but he wouldn't hold it against Ric if he felt like it. "Do you enjoy kicking around small defenseless boxes to make yourself feel better?"

"It's a hobby." Ric shook his head, "I'm kidding, Damian. I'll just make extra sure that I don't trip again. Unless you want to follow behind me to make sure for me?"

"I'd hate to have people think that I was stalking my father's worst enemy…" Damian stopped himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't." Ric's reputation and public displays of Sonny as enemy number one were not something that had anything to do with Damian directly. And the truth was, on some level, Ric was Sonny's worst enemy. Aside from Sonny himself, of course. "I'll see you around, Damian."

"Bye, Uncle Ric." Damian walked down the side of the peer where Ric came from and picked up the garland and ornaments that were still scattered around. He looked at them for a moment, then looked over at the design that was complete. It didn't look that complicated, and he would hate for someone to actually hurt themselves while they were walking around. Maybe hanging up garland and the like would put him in the spirit. Everything was right there for him to finish the job. There was only one way to find out, and he got to work.


	4. Decorations

Corinthos Household-

Sonny was a cautious man. Even when he thought he felt save, he always took precautions to make sure that, in the off chance that his initial feeling was incorrect, he would have enough time to fix that error. He knew how to fight. He might not have been as quick and his punches may not have had as much power as they did when he was a youngster, but he was still a scrapper at heart. Growing up in his neighborhood, if one didn't know how to throw a good punch they tended to get their lunch money taken away. It was a lesson that young Sonny didn't need to be taught over and over. The first time it happened was the last time it happened. He regretted taking advantage of people, but he hated being taken advantage of even more.

Sonny, at least, had the knowledge that his children didn't have to go through the same thing. Michael had never been in a fight during his school years. In fact, aside from times when he had to be taken out of school for his own safety or because he was sick, Michael was an outstanding student, among the top of his class. Things had even gotten better since Damian came around. He would do whatever he could to help Michael when he needed it, and he was much more educated than Carly and Sonny. Not that either of them weren't bright, but Damian had a more refined mind. They grew up with more street smarts than anything, and while Damian had his fair share of those, he was much more the scholar. He never got his lunch money stolen either. People didn't pay much attention to him. It was a fact that still carried some weight on Damian's mind, the fact that he had grown up so quiet and alone. Only now, when he came to Port Charles and made friends was he slowly starting to branch out. Sonny, in a way, wished that he would have picked a better person to fall in love with than Maxie Jones, but she made his boy happy and Sonny could see how much they loved each other. For that reason alone he would never try to break them up.

Upstairs there was a strange sound coming from the hallway. Carly was out, and Sonny had only recently returned from one of the warehouses and a meeting with Myer. Max, ever dutiful, never left his post, which meant that if someone got inside the house they had to climb up through the terrace or find some way to sneak past Max. If the latter proved itself to be true, Sonny would not be a happy man. His gun partially hidden, but unencumbered enough for a quick draw if need be, Sonny investigated the strange sound.

Before he could check the rooms of his sons, Sonny saw one of the doors opened slightly, the rustling sound coming from right behind that door. Since no burglar would be stupid enough to make that much noise, especially in the home of Sonny Corinthos, Sonny didn't see any reason to hold the gun in the open. He moved to the other side of the door and saw the redheaded boy digging around. Sonny got on his knees, a Cheshire grin evident on his face, complete with dimples. "Santa doesn't like it when little boys look for their presents early!"

Michael jumped up a bit, his head jerking back at the unexpected voice of his father. His face turned red, a crimson shade that was only marginally different from the shade of his hair. If he was sneaking around for his presents, he would be in a whole lot of trouble. Luckily, nothing could be further from the truth. Michael was still the type of person who believed in Santa Clause, and therefore had not contemplated the fact that his parents were the ones responsible for almost all of his gifts, save those that were given to him by Jason, Courtney and his grandparents. "Daddy!"

"You're not going to find any presents there, Mike."

"I know," the blush faded away, Michael's usual freckled complexion returning shortly after. "I wasn't looking for presents."

"Well, what were you looking for?" Sonny asked. He was intrigued. Unless Michael was making up some elaborate lie. Maybe Damian managed to use his little brother as a tool, searching for his own presents. Sonny had no idea what he was going to buy his adult son. He somehow doubted that Damian wanted the same things as Michael. Unless Damian had some action figure fetish that he was hiding until the right moment. Not that Sonny would judge the boy.

"Decorations, the Christmas decorations." Michael started looking through the boxes again. Sonny didn't mind. None of the things that could make his children wonder about him were kept in places that they could find.

"We'll put up the decorations a few days before Christmas, like we always do." Sonny wasn't the type who had his decorations out the day after thanksgiving. He waited until a few days before Christmas to get the biggest tree, which would be decorated with his children shortly after. It was one of his favorite traditions, something that he and his mother did when he was a boy.

"I want it to be special, daddy," Michael admitted, finally halting the search for the elusive Christmas decorations. There was a very good reason that he was looking so frantically, and so early. He had dreamed of the day where he could put up the decorations with his big brother since Thanksgiving. He liked Thanksgiving as much as the next person, but Christmas was always something special. It wasn't just because of the presents, although they helped, but it was about the feeling that was given during the holiday. He wanted to share that feeling with Damian. "This is the first time we'll have Damian with us, I want everything to be perfect."

"I get what you're saying, buddy, but the decorations aren't there." Sonny stood up and reached for the higher parts of the closet. Although they weren't clearly labeled, Sonny knew which boxes held the Christmas things. It was his favorite time of the year as well, one of the rare few times when he could say that he had a good time. Lois helped with that immeasurably. He missed that lady so much. She and Carly didn't get along at all, but that didn't mean that they didn't try and be civil around each other for his sake. He brought the boxes down and put them on the ground. "They were up there. You can't reach them yet, you're not tall enough."

"I wish I were taller. I want to be real tall, daddy!"

"You'll grow plenty, Michael," Sonny gave the boy a pat on his shoulder. His love for his sons always seemed to go past the limit. When Sonny thought he couldn't give them any more love there was always something that happened that made him love them more. "But you have to wait. You don't want to grow up too quickly." Or, rather, Sonny didn't want Michael to grow up too quickly. There was only so much that he could deal with, a teenage son was something that he wasn't ready to battle. He got lucky, on some level, with Damian. He was an adult. He knew his place in the world, at least on some level. Sonny and Damian had their battles, but they were about more important things than Sonny giving him a curfew that he felt was too early, or not letting him drive the car.

"Aren't you excited, daddy?" Michael wondered, looking through all the things that were clearly displayed in the boxes. Everything looked so sparkly. He had his favorites. Everyone did. Maybe Damian would get his favorites when he saw the decorations. He was probably going to fall in love with them, too.

"Of course I'm excited about our first Christmas with Damian, buddy. And Morgan's a year older now, maybe he can finally start appreciating the presents that we give him, after he spends hours playing with the boxes."

"Why do babies do that?" Michael wondered. He'd seen other kids do that. It was the strangest thing to him. Why bother playing with the box that the fire truck came in when the fire truck was right there to be played with?

"You did it for a few years."

"No I didn't!"

"Yeah you did, I'm sure your mother has the videos around here somewhere to prove it. Unless you don't believe me."

"I believe you, daddy," Michael said, succumbing to the truth. He was just like all the other billions of babies that had been so fixated with gift wrapping and boxes that they didn't care about the actual gift. Luckily, he was no longer that type of child, now he tossed the boxes away and just played with his new toy. "But you didn't answer my question."

"Babies like playing with boxes, Mike. We all did it for a little while. It's just that when we're at that age, that's what we do." Sonny looked at the ornaments as well, the decorations, the nativity scene. Everything that he valued, the spirit of the holiday, captured in a few little cardboard boxes. He wondered how his son spent the holidays, before his mother died and especially after it. What was it like being alone? Was it the same for Damian as it was for Sonny? When Adella died, that first Christmas was hard on him. He could only imagine how much it pained Damian to be without his mother.

"Daddy? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking about what we were going to do with these boxes. It would be a shame to put them back up now that they're already down."

"We could decorate the house!" Michael said excitedly, clutching onto Sonny's hand and nearly begging his father to succumb to his dearest wish.

"No, buddy, it's too early for that. Besides, nobody else is here. Your mom is out, and I don't even know where your brother is. Do you?"

Michael shook his head, "I was sleeping. He said he was going to be over at Uncle Jason's, watching movies with Dillon. Maybe he's still there." Michael would never admit it, but there was a part of him that was jealous of the friendship that Damian and Dillon had. It seemed so different from the relationship that he had with Damian, and he was Damian's brother. Why wasn't he able to do things with Damian that Dillon got to do with him? Michael didn't understand, and he hated it when he didn't understand.

"Well, we can't decorate things for his first Christmas without him, that wouldn't be nice. Tell you what, if you promise to be really careful with these, we'll put them in your room, under your bed, until we're ready to get them out and decorate with everyone. That way you can look at them whenever you want, but you have to be really careful. These are very important to me."

"They're important to me, too," Michael agreed. The decorations would be guarded with his life if need be. Such severities wouldn't need to be taken, but he was more than willing to do something like that.

"Okay then," Sonny hoisted a box, the heaviest one, grunting a little as the weight settled in with his body. He was getting older, things weren't as easy to do as they were when he was younger. "Mike, grab the tiny box with all the lights, would you?"

"Sure!" Michael grabbed the box in question, it was light enough for him to carry without straining him in the least. They moved into Michael's room, which wasn't the cleanest place on the planet, but compared to how it could have been it was a vast improvement. He at least had some order to his mess. Sonny didn't know what the order was exactly, but there was some sort of motive for the room. It was apparent.

"Sonny!" Jason's voice could be heard from the lower levels of the penthouse. From the way his voice sounded, it seemed pretty urgent.

"Uncle Jason's here!" Michael was happy.

Sonny, however, knew that now wasn't a time when Michael hanging around was going to be the best thing for any of them. He put his hand out as Michael tried to run out the door. "Buddy, daddy and Uncle Jason have to talk about something really important right now, okay? When we're done, I'll call you and you can come down and talk with him. How's that sound?"

"I guess its okay," Michael was hurt that he was denied instant access to his Uncle, but there was nothing that he could really do.

"That's my boy." Sonny walked out before walking back in with the final box of Christmas decorations and shutting the door, the smallest amount of sweat building up on his forehead.

Jason was looking around the living room. How much of it had changed since Damian had come around? Not much, physically, but there was the feeling that something was different from the time before he got there. He knew everything that they did, they didn't have to be secretive about their lives, Damian had seen the darkness that lurked in the underworld, and he hadn't been turned away from it like so many people before him. It was scary, but that was to be expected, it scared Jason on some level, too.

Sonny came down the stairs, hiding the fatigue that came from the boxes. There was a reason that he usually had Max get them down. Max was paid to do the grunt work. "What's up?"

"Damian… he's still fighting what he did to Alcazar." Jason wondered if he should have told Sonny about that. Wondering if it was his place to tell Sonny about Damian's problem. It seemed like it was something that was better suited for Damian to tell Sonny alone. But Damian might not have told Sonny, ever. Much like his father, it came to other people to tell those that were important to them about what was bugging that person. Damian was no different. The world could be crashing around him, his world, and he wouldn't tell anyone, or at least wouldn't expect help.

"He shouldn't feel so horrible about what happened, Jason. We both know what kind of a bastard Lorenzo Alcazar was. Carly tried to believe that he was different, that he wasn't a killer like Luis, but she was wrong. He was going to kill my boy, but not before he killed me. If it wasn't for Damian, we wouldn't be here right now, and I don't even want to know what Alcazar would have done without me and you here to keep Carly from him. Worse, I don't know what he would do to my children. He saved my life and the lives of so many other people. Why can't he just see that?"

"Because he isn't like us, Sonny," Jason said simply. "I wish he could get rid of the guilt, too. But it won't ever be that simple for him. Think about how he was when he got here. We shattered his perceptions, but he still kept on thinking that maybe, just maybe he could fix things. The fact that he was forced to do something that he thought was so wrong only broke him down even more. Face it, he isn't like us…"

"Then what kind of person am I, Uncle Jason?" Damian wondered, having returned to the house. He had stayed outside of the door when he heard voices, not wanting to come into the conversation that was being had, but when it turned out to be a conversation about him he didn't really have a choice.


	5. Tests

Authors Notes: Happy New Year to My Readers (Assuming I Have Any)!

Story-

"What Jason means is…" Sonny attempted to smooth things over. He didn't see why his son would have a problem with Jason making a claim about his life, but Sonny often let his dependency on Jason cloud his judgment. Jason was not the perfect person that he always appeared to be, and Damian seemed to be one of the only people around who realized he had his flaws, despite openly claiming that Uncle Jason was one of the best people that he had ever met. It was a true claim, but everyone had faults, why should Jason be any different?

"I'd really like to hear what Uncle Jason means by hearing him tell me himself, dad." Damian was quick to interject. Sonny had a way about him that would make everything seem like it was just a lot better. The apocalypse could come, but if Sonny Corinthos was the one that was explaining that they were going to face the end of everything, he'd find some way to make people accept it. He looked at Jason, the pain obvious in his eyes, even though he didn't really know what Jason was going to say, the fact that he was going to say something without saying it to Damian himself was hurtful. People did that, though. He did that, and only then, when he was the one who was on the receiving end of the hidden meanings, did he realize how bad it was for the person who was being talked about.

"You're innocent," Jason said, not missing a beat. "You're not the type of person that would go out and do what your father and I do, Damian. The fact that you forced yourself to do something that went against what you believed in hurt you, and you're not going to recover from that in a few months, if you ever do."

"You're right," Damian walked past the two of them and poured a cup of water. "There are times when I can ignore what happened, times when I can block it out of my mind… but it doesn't work all the time. I still have dreams about that night. I still remember the way that he looked at me when he said that he was going to kill everyone that I loved, and I still remember the way it felt when I put that piece of cold iron in my hand and pulled the trigger. But I didn't think that it would do this to me. My dreams… my mind, obviously, those things are going to remind me of that, but I can't even watch a movie with my best friend and not think about it." He paused for a moment, taking a drink of the water and looking up at the ceiling. "I'm afraid…"

Jason and Sonny exchanged glances in pure silence, but it was Sonny who broke the void of sound. "What are you afraid of?" It was an honest question, one that Sonny felt, as Damian's father, he had a right to know the answer to.

"Don't take this the wrong way, either of you, but I'm afraid of becoming like both of you. I know that you're not bad people, and I don't even have to tell myself that over and over to believe it anymore, but the fact that you can hold a gun and shoot people without even flinching… that's not something that I ever want to see myself doing, but that's how it starts, isn't it?" Damian looked at the both of them once more. "You start out, nervous about it. You feel bad about the first person that you killed, and slowly you just find a way to block it out, to ignore everything that happened. You find a way to cloud your mind."

"Lorenzo Alcazar had to die, son," Sonny said calmly, walking over and putting his hand on Damian's shoulder, there was a slight jerking feeling that came from his boy when the contact was made, but it stopped. "I know that you know that."

"I do… I just wish I hadn't have been the one to do it. I didn't even try to help him when he was dying three feet away from me. What kind of person does that? I want to be a doctor, I want to help people…"

"Help the people who deserve to be helped," Jason cut in. "You can't save everyone, you know that. You shouldn't go into the profession thinking that you're going to find some cure for everything. Do the best that you can and hope that it's enough."

Sonny sighed and decided that he needed to do something to help Damian. He was Damian's father, and his son was going through a crisis, one that he thought had been dealt with, at least for the most part, when Sonny talked Damian out of shooting himself after he shot Alcazar. But it was apparent now that Damian hadn't yet adjusted to what had happened, and while Sonny knew that Damian would never be okay with the decision that was made it shouldn't have caused his son to doubt his own life and his own sense of being. "You're afraid that you're losing your sense of morality, aren't you?"

"Among other things, yeah," Damian wished that he wouldn't have said anything. Now the two people that he didn't want to know about his problem knew about it. Did they think that he was less of a person because of the fact that he had such a trivial fear? Did they feel that he should have been able to deal with the consequences of his actions, deal with the fact that he had murdered someone and the whole thing had been covered up?

"Here," Sonny pulled out his gun, turning the handle towards his son.

"What are you doing?" Damian asked, looking at the gun, baffled at the idea that his father was just going to hand a gun out to him.

Jason was also puzzled. He didn't know what was going on in Sonny's head, and when that happened, Jason Morgan came into connection with something that he rarely thought about or felt, fear.

"Take it."

"I can't…"

"It's a test, son," Sonny said simply. "A test to see if you're going down the path that you don't want to travel. If you can take the gun in your hand and you can point it at me, then what? What does that prove? That you're not afraid of using this for it's intended affect, no matter who gets hurt. Look at yourself, Damian. You're shaking. But why are you shaking? Are you shaking because you're trying to resist the urge to grab the gun, or because you're afraid of even touching the thing?"

Damian looked at the gun. It was so close to him, he could feel the handle brushing against his skin. He brought his hand up and clutched the hilt of the gun with his fingers. Sonny let his hand release the gun, leaving it in Damian's shaking hand. They all looked at the hand, holding the gun as if it were a sign. Then, the gun dropped, Damian's hand went limp. The sound of the gun plummeting to the wooden floor echoed through the small room. Damian looked down at the gun. When he felt the iron on his hand again he couldn't keep it there. He couldn't touch the gun and just leave it in his hand. "I can't…"

"See?" Sonny got on his knees and picked the gun up, putting it away safely from the sight of all parties involved. "You're not losing your humanity, Damian. You did what needed to be done for the sake of everyone. That doesn't mean that you don't feel something over what happened, but you don't have to let it drive you like you have been. Alcazar is dead, you killed him, you saved me and you saved yourself. Do you want to see how your grandfather would have acted if it had been him in the position? Think about how Elias is now, Damian. He raised you, he was the father figure that you had growing up." It pained Sonny to admit that, to know that he had a son who he didn't get to help grow up, see become the young man that was standing before him. "And there was a time that he did exactly what Jason and I do, you know that. He's not doing it anymore because he made the choice to stop. He made the choice to get on with his life, you can do the exact same thing, son. You can keep on living your life the way you're used to. Nobody here is going to judge you for what you did, and you shouldn't even judge yourself."

Damian knew that Sonny was right. Sonny tended to be right more often than not, it was what made Sonny who he was. But accepting that what he did was the only thing he could have done wasn't the problem, it was accepting how it changed him, but the only one who thought that he had changed was himself. Why was that? Because he was just automatically the type of person who judged himself too much, just like Dillon had said? Probably, but knowing that he had that problem and dealing with that problem weren't the same thing. He didn't even know if he could deal with it. But he had to try. He couldn't let his life be turned upside down because of one act, one act of protection. He had to be strong for the people that he cared about, and he had to be strong for himself.

"I'll leave the two of you alone," Jason said as he headed for the door.

"Uncle Jason, wait," Damian called out, looking at Jason as he stopped his departure, hand on the doorknob. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like I was accusing you of saying something bad about me. It's just… it's harder on me when you and dad are the type of people that you are. I didn't think that I could confide in you with this because of what you do, I should have known better."

"Even when I don't understand what you're going through, if you need me to listen I will," Jason said calmly as he walked out, shutting the door behind him.

"Do you feel better?" Sonny wondered.

"Kind of, I guess," Damian sat down on the couch, physically exhausted. "I just need to stop thinking that I'm becoming like you, don't I?"

"Nobody could be like me, I'm one of a kind."

"That's the closest thing to the truth I've ever heard. Uncle Ric was right…"

"What about Ric?" Sonny's tone shifted from light and calm to a little darker, a little fiercer. Ric would always bring that side out of him, no matter what. He hated that his son had taken such a liking to Ric because of the past that they had, but he knew that if he tried to keep Damian away from Ric he would just fight harder to be around. Family was important to Damian, and the two did seem to have a good relationship, one that wasn't built on Ric trying to use his son against Damian. Sonny just hoped that Damian was smart enough tell that Ric was using him in the chance that he finally decided to strike at Sonny through one of his weakest points, if not his weakest point. Michael and Morgan were his sons and they were used to him being their father. For Damian, the fact that he had a father in Sonny was something that was still fresh in the mind.

"He said that I don't have to worry about people thinking that I'm turning into the miniature version of you anytime soon, because of what I do, but what if I did become like you, dad? What if something happened to me that made me walk down that path in life? Would you try and stop me?"

"Not if it was what you really wanted to do," Sonny admitted, but he didn't like the question. Damian needed to be a doctor, needed to do something that helped people instead of hurt them. "But I would keep you from making the same self-destructive mistakes that I made when I was your age. And the mistakes that I made when I was even younger than you are right now."

"You're talking about what happened with my mom, aren't you?" Damian asked. It was no secret that Sonny regretted the fact that he had been forced upon Ana-Maria. Maybe if it had been a relationship that both of them wanted it would have been different, but there was no chance of them reliving that moment and changing it. He was the product of a loveless sexual act.

"Among other things," Sonny sulked. "Do you… are you mad at me for what I just did? Was the gun too much?"

"It helped put things into perspective for me, dad. I could never use that unless it was the last thing that I could use. I don't ever see myself depending on one the way that you do."

"Neither do I."

"Good," Sonny believed the words that were coming from Damian. He was an honest kid. Brutally honest at times, and the type of honest that could be manipulated if someone tried hard enough. Carly had tried in the beginning, Sonny was amazed at the fact that she didn't manage to scare the boy away right away. If it were anyone else, she probably would have gotten her wish. "Can we change the subject, please?"

"You don't like talking about my near-metal breakdowns and the brandishing of weapons to kill people?" Damian didn't want to talk about that topic any longer either. He'd rather it never come up at all, but he had a feeling that it would. He would wake up in the morning, a cold sweat all over the bed, because he was dreaming about what he had done. That was how he had woken up every morning since that day. The days when he was happy started out the exact same way from the days that he was sad.

"I can honestly say that it is one of the few topics that I don't like talking with you about. I'd sooner talk about religion with you." Sonny remembered the decorations that were safely in the room of the boy upstairs. "Speaking of which… you know it's our first Christmas together, and we all really want to make you feel welcome."

"I'm not going to have to go through some hazing ritual that involves drinking excess amounts of eggnog, am I?"

"No…"

"And you're not going to expect me to take a picture sitting on some Mall Santa's lap, right?"

"Well that takes care of one of the items on my agenda," Sonny smirked. He didn't expect such things, but it would have been funny. Then again, Damian was a bit older than Santa's usual clientele. "But, what I really wanted to know was if there was anything that you wanted to do… any traditions that your family had back in Los Angeles that we could try and do here, to make you feel better."

"Christmas at the Zuniga household was… chaos, to say the least," Damian didn't have fond memories of his Christmases. Watching his cousins raid the presents like moths to a flame. Even when he was at the age where Christmas was this great thing, he wasn't the type who got overly excited about it. Maybe because he would see his cousins with his aunts… and his uncles. A complete family at Christmas, something that he could never have, even now that he found his father. "But there isn't anything that we did that was some Christmas tradition. They still went to church on Christmas Eve, but I stopped… after…"

"Yeah, I know why you stopped." When Sonny lost his mother he didn't go through the same loss of hope in religion. In fact he clung to it even more than he had before, but Damian took a different approach. In taking his mother away from him, God failed in his eyes. "We decorate the tree together as a family… you should be here."

"I will be, promise," Damian got up. "I'll be back later, dad…"

"But you just got back from going out…"

"I know, but there's something that I need to check up on, so I'll be back when I finish doing that. Bye." Damian shut the door behind him. He knew where he needed to go. Maybe he'd be going back there and staying.


	6. Driven

Stacey- Thank you for being the first person to review (the people don't love me anymore sniff, sniff). I am glad that you enjoyed part one of this saga and hope to make part two something that is as, if not more, enjoyable. As to your question, look no further than the very chapter that you are reading this message on, Maxie makes her return. Too bad they can't do the same on the show. I miss Maxie.

Kelly's-

Mike Corbin Corinthos was a man of many skills, as well as many vices. One of them involved gambling, something that lead him to believe that it was best to leave his own children in the care of more responsible people, namely, their mothers. It pained a part of Mike to do what he had done to both Sonny and Courtney, but a part of being a father, a part of being a good father, was giving children what was best for them and not being so fixated on what the parent wanted. It was better for them that he was gone, that he wasn't such an influence on them when they were growing up. Courtney may have not grown into the beautiful, strong woman that she was, and Sonny… Sonny might have been worse. He could have been better as well, but Mike didn't see how his habits would have steered Sonny towards the path that he had taken. He loved Sonny dearly, he always would, but they wouldn't see eye to eye on so many things. It was a trend in Corinthos men that the father and the first born son would always have some wall that refused to be broken down, or at least it appeared to be one. Damian may not have broken the trend between him and Sonny, but maybe, just maybe, when he became a father, his own son wouldn't try and do things differently.

While gambling may have been one of his vices, cooking was something that he was at least somewhat decent at. Sonny got his skills somewhere, but Sonny perfected them to an art. If Sonny was the cook at Kelly's, Mike had no doubt in his mind that it would be a booming business. It would be easy to do, too, since his wife's recently re-acquired business was downstairs. A legit way of making money. Not that Sonny didn't make money by the law. His coffee importing business was entirely legal, but it wasn't how he made his fortune. He could find ways to make his family happy and do it the right way, but Sonny was already too old and too fixated on his lifestyle for it to change. He had tried to change it and it didn't work as well as they had all hoped. He had ruined a relationship with his son simply because he couldn't be honest about what type of person that he was. While that relationship may have mended itself there was no doubt that it would be something that neither party would ever forget.

"Mike, snap out of it!" Elizabeth Webber said as she sat on the stool next to Mike. Since Bobbie had taken it upon herself to give Mike something of a purpose, not because she felt that he was worthless, but because she saw the potential in him, Elizabeth had found a sort of surrogate boss in Mike, but there were times when he just seemed to not be there. It was understandable, he had a family that he always needed to worry about, a family that Elizabeth always worried about, too. Even when she didn't know Damian there was always that feeling of what was going to happen to Sonny's family, at least since she started going out with Jason. Even after they broke it off she wondered. Jason was a part of that family, it was why he was so involved with all of them. Elizabeth could see the love that radiated from Jason's eyes whenever he was around Michael. She wished that, at least on some level, Jason could have the type of love from Michael that he had when Michael was a baby, but Jason wasn't Michael's dad anymore, Sonny was. Mike had yet to heed her order, so she was forced to take drastic measures. "Earth to Mike," Elizabeth waved her hand in front of his face, hoping that maybe that would get his attention. When it didn't, she clapped her hands in front of his face, remaining scant few centimeters away from his nose.

The smacking of flesh around his face did jerk Mike back into the land of the living, it was a painful reminder of how he was treated when he couldn't pay up the loan sharks that he had pilfered money from. That was a part of his life that he hoped to never get back in to, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't. It was a powerful obsession, sometimes it overpowered even his strongest will, which was why he had given it up so many times in the past only to return yet again. Mike was about to put his hands up to defend his face, but he realized that he was in the warm atmosphere of Kelly's, hardly the dark alley's where he was beaten into inches of his life. "What, Elizabeth? I'm so sorry, I zoned out a bit."

"A bit?" Elizabeth said in a condescending tone, "I nearly had to get a bucket of cold water and dump it over your head to get your attention." She smiled, but it faded a moment later. Like clockwork, Elizabeth slowly went to work doing something that she felt she had a knack for, fixing problems that didn't involve her. Some times she was successful, others she was not. It didn't stop her from trying each time, though. "What's on your mind, Mike?" Elizabeth asked. "There are no customers that haven't ordered and gotten their food already, so unless they need a refill on their drinks, I'm all yours until we get a new customer."

Mike was also a good liar. He hoped that he was good enough to lie to Elizabeth. The best way to find out was to try it. "I was wondering about what I gave up when I decided to leave the kids with their mothers. Especially right now, you know? Around Christmastime. There were times when I would think about paying them a visit, but I knew that it would just hurt them all in the end, since I didn't have any intentions of staying around for the long run. I would have stayed, been convinced to stick around and right when things started to get good again I would worry about screwing everything up and I would run away again. Sonny and Courtney deserved better than that." Mike lowered his head, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, "That doesn't mean that they got better, though. Sonny had to deal with that bastard of a step-father who made my boy hate life… and Courtney, she just wanted her dad. That was her big Christmas wish each year, for me to come around and stay. She never got it."

"She has it now, Mike," Elizabeth said, holding back the tears that were forming in her eyes from the sob story. She had seen the true grief of a man who didn't deserve to feel that much. While it was horrible that Mike made the choices that he made, the fact that he felt so bad about them showed that he deserved to be forgiven, if not by himself then by his own children. She knew that Courtney was forgiving, but Sonny was something different. There would be no forgiveness from Sonny, at least not anytime soon. He carried grudges. "You've been here for how long? You've been here for both of your children, and your grandchildren, and anyone else who needs you for something for how long? Bobbie asked you to help run this place, and you were here in a second."

"Well it's not like I have a busy social calendar, Elizabeth. The next time I've got something planned is Michael's birthday, and that's not for a bit…"

"That's beside the point and you know it!" Elizabeth gave him a playful shrug. "You would have done it even if you had something that you were doing, because you care about Bobbie and when you care about someone you help them."

"Yeah… now I help them… but I wasn't always like that."

"People change, Mike, in a lot of ways. Look at me. I went from dating Lucky to Jason and then to Ric, with some people in between, and there was something that I loved about each of them, because I grew as a person. Lucky was my first love, the type that every teenage girl cares about, but now we're just good friends, and we're both happy with that, Jason and Ric are people that I would have never seen myself with when I was with Lucky, but it happened, and I don't regret it."

"Relationships are a bit different from abandoning your children, Elizabeth," Mike remarked. "But thanks for trying to cheer me up."

"Did it help?"

"Only a little, but every little bit does help, right?" Mike glanced out the window and saw his grandson walking into Kelly's. Even though he was dealing with a personal problem, Mike did his best to make it seem like everything was fine. "Damian! Did you come because you wanted a slice of pie?"

"Maybe later, Grandpa," Damian walked up to the both of them and smiled at Elizabeth. "Uncle Ric said that you were working with the people at the hospital for the Christmas party."

"We got out a little early, since we're ahead of schedule, something that hasn't happened since before either of us were breathing." Elizabeth couldn't wait for the party. The way all the children finally got out of their drab hospital rooms and smiled for just a little while. It wasn't a permanent solution, but if they were to feel good about themselves one day out of the year, why wouldn't it be Christmas? "So I decided to come back here and get some extra work in. Tips help a lot this time of year, especially when I've got one extra person to get a Christmas present for."

"I hope you don't mean me…" Damian didn't want Elizabeth wasting her money on him. It didn't seem like it was something that she had to do. Her friendship was a present that he had enjoyed since the day he arrived in Port Charles, it was the best present that he could have gotten from her or from anyone else. "Elizabeth, I just want you to focus on the people who are really important to you."

"And that doesn't include you?" She asked. "Damian, it's Christmas, you get presents for the people that you care about, for your friends and for your family. You're someone that I care about deeply, and I want to get a present for you, so don't try and talk me out of it!"

"Okay, okay, I concede victory to you, in the spirit of Christmas," Damian knew that fighting Elizabeth when she wanted to do something that badly was a futile experiment. Maybe she would just get him some random knickknack from the dollar store. He wouldn't mind, the less money she spent on him, the more she had for herself. He pushed himself off the counter and looked at the stairs, "I've got something to take care of upstairs…"

"You don't have time to talk your grandfather out of buying you a Christmas present? I wouldn't mind a few extra bucks myself…"

"You're so bad!" Elizabeth again hit Mike, this time it was more of an enclosed fist, but it was all in good humor.

"Hey, my bones don't take impact like they used to!" Mike said, rubbing his arm. He might have a bruise. It wouldn't be the first time. Mike watched his grandson walk up the stairs, not even giving him a moment of his time. When Damian was out of sight, Mike once more sighed, "I guess he didn't…"

"What do you think he's doing upstairs?" Elizabeth asked. The last time she had seen him go upstairs was when he was living in the apartment. Her jaw opened, "You don't think he's going to move back into Kelly's, do you?"

"I'd hope not. It would crush Michael if his brother left again, and especially right now…"

Damian walked down the small hall of Kelly's. It had been a long time since he had been upstairs, although Kelly's was a frequented establishment by most people, including him. It wasn't simply because his grandfather, one of his dearest friends, and a woman that he considered to be a surrogate grandmother to him all had something to do with the place, Kelly's also had some damned good food.

He opened the door with the key that he thought he wouldn't need to use again. There was really no reason that he needed to be back at the apartment. He had taken everything with him the second time he moved back into the penthouse. It was funny, he wasn't even in the apartment for a week before he moved into the penthouse the first time, at the insistence of his father. Damian believed that he would never come back then, but he was wrong. He wasn't so sure that everything would work out while under his father's roof, but he was willing to give Sonny much more in the way of slack with his lifestyle than he had the first time, because Sonny was more honest about it.

Damian sat on the bed, the only thing that hadn't changed. It wasn't as comfortable as the bed in his room, but he would always think of it as a fond bed, because it was the first time he had actually struck out on his own. It was a short attempt at independence, at least in the housing sense.

"Got some time for me?"

He knew who the voice belonged to, and he looked over from the bed to the doorway. Maxie stood there, a wide smile on her beautiful face. It was quickly reciprocated. "I always have time for the girl of my dreams…"

"I didn't expect you to be at Kelly's, I just came for a cup of coffee, but Mike said that you were up here, so I thought I would keep you company." She walked over and sat down next to him, kissing him on the cheek and resting her head on his shoulder. "What's up, Damian? This is the last place that I ever thought I would find you again. Are you thinking about leaving Sonny?"

"I don't know what I'm thinking right now, Maxie. It's scary. I just wish that my life made sense… but it doesn't."

"Yes it does," Maxie corrected him. "Your life makes perfect sense, at least to me. You're this great person who cares about so many people and they care about you. You're going to be a wonderful doctor, and you're going to help so many people because that's what you want to do. How could that not make any sense?"

"That part does… but that's not all I am. I don't know," Damian got up and looked out the window, "maybe it's this time of year, bringing back all my insecurities and fears that were running around when I was a kid and when I thought I was an orphan."

"It'll get better, Damian," Maxie said, not moving from her seat. She wanted to support him so much, and the best way that she could do that was by helping him when he needed it. "I promise you."

"When you say it, Maxie, I believe it," Damian watched the snow fall again. He and Maxie had their first snowball fight when the snow was high enough. It was one of the best times of his life. It was good to have those types of memories, ones that were devoid of pain.

"This place is special to us, you know that?" Maxie said, looking around the room. "It was the first place that we ever kissed." She smiled, "Not that it meant anything at the time."

"It meant something to me, Maxie. It may not have been the best time for a kiss, but that didn't mean that it didn't mean something to me. I wasn't sure how I felt about you when you did it, but I knew that you were something special."

"I remember coming out of this room that night, thinking that I had blown the only chance I had with you. I didn't know that we would fall in love either, but I'm glad that we did."

"So am I," Damian returned to the bed and was about to sweep Maxie down onto the bed with a kiss, but his plan was put to a screeching halt when Elizabeth came into the room.

"Damian, we need your help… someone's having a seizure downstairs!"


	7. Purpose

There was not a question asked when Elizabeth made the announcement. Maxie threw a worried glance over to her boyfriend, but he was already bolting for the door, the bed vibrating with the shock of his quick dismount. She was expecting him to look at least a little bit scared, but he didn't look like that at all. He was determined. She had seen the way that he looked before, when he had managed to save Zander Smith's life shortly after Zander put that same life on the line for her.

Elizabeth looked at Maxie for a moment, she had done what she was supposed to do, and she was still worried about the man that was having the seizure. "Maxie, he might need your help. Come on!"

Maxie nodded her head and got up, following Elizabeth down the stairs into the restaurant.

Damian's feet made a loud stomping sound as he skipped several at a time in an effort to quicken his descent down into the actual eatery of Kelly's. He could hear the worried screams of the people around, and the wails of someone. A female wail, presumably a wife or a girlfriend. There was a crowd gathered in front of the stairway, Damian had to push his way through in order to get past everyone. He looked at the man who was on the ground, he was still convulsing. At least his face was looking up, not facing the floor, that made his job a little bit easier, but there was still the chance that he could choke on his own saliva or his tongue.

When Damian knelt down next to the man, the woman looked at him, "Get away from my husband!"

"I'm trying to help your husband, ma'am." He said calmly, but firmly. He understood how she was feeling. When someone that was loved was in danger, the last thing that a person wanted was someone who they didn't know, who they didn't trust, to try and help. If Damian had been in the hospital it would have been different, but he wasn't. He wasn't even a doctor yet, but he knew how to help. "Please, hold his head steady for me."

"You're just a kid…" she said in between the wails and heavy breathing.

"I'm the best chance that your husband has at survival until the paramedics arrive. I know what I'm doing, please believe me."

Her eyes filled with tears, her mascara running, the woman, who was barely a few years older than Carly, did as she was instructed. She could sense the truthfulness in the words of the young man who seemed to know what he was doing. He was the only one who had even tried to do something. The others were just screaming and standing around, at least this boy was attempting a rescue. How could she not appreciate that?

"Grandpa!" Damian yelled, "Get me a soup bowl or something for the saliva…"

"On it!" Mike had to yell as well, in an effort to make sure that he was heard over the sounds of the crowd. There weren't that many people in Kelly's, but when they were all bunched together and worried, they made themselves known. He dug through the varied sizes, he wasn't sure how big it was supposed to be, but he figured that the bigger it was the better, so he grabbed a moderately sized bowl and pushed his way through the crowd, looking at Maxie as she came down the stairs. "The paramedics were already called, they said they would be on their way as soon as they could be."

"Good," Damian didn't enjoy the feel of the man's warm saliva on his fingers, but he would have gladly done it if it meant saving someone's life. He would just have to use a lot of antibacterial soap.

"Can I do anything to help?" Maxie asked, kneeling beside him. She was shaking. She was nervous. She wasn't even the one that was doing anything to try and save the man's life and she was more nervous than the man that was. That was why Damian would make a good doctor, he knew how to control himself. She wasn't aware of the nervous twitching that his body had gone through not even an hour before.

"Get me something to suck the saliva out that I can't get with my fingers…"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, Maxie," Damian admitted. "One of those things that people use to baste turkeys, it just needs to have some suction power."

"You're going to stick a turkey basting device in my husband's mouth?" The woman asked, horrified.

"Do you have any better ideas, miss?" Damian snapped back. It was a good thing that, in the operating room, people didn't have to deal with frantic wives. Hence why Damian didn't want to be the type of doctor who delivered babies. He would have to learn how to do that, in fact he had already taken that class, but he didn't see himself spending time in the maternity ward. "Maxie, go get something!"

Mike and Elizabeth also helped the searching. Despite being a restaurant, they rarely used things that would baste. Kelly's just wasn't that type of establishment, but they did make pies, and they used the filling tools, which did have suction in them. Mike grabbed the smallest one that he could this time, since a large one wouldn't fit in the guys mouth. He glanced at Maxie, "Catch!"

She caught the thing in her hands and rushed over to Damian, handing it over. "Do you think it's going to help?"

"It's the best I can do for him, if it doesn't work…" he looked up at the woman, who didn't like the way his sentence was going. "We just won't think about if it doesn't work right now." Damian put the small pie filler in his mouth, where there was some saliva, not much, but more than enough to cause the man to start choking if it got in his mouth. With his mouth being open for so long it only caused more spit to come out, the bowl was marginally filled, and it wasn't pretty. He took the filler in, filled it up as much as he could, and siphoned the mucus out into the bowl. While he was doing that, he felt the shaking lessen and he could only hope that it meant what it did mean, but he did not dare actually say it. He waited for a second, just a second, to see if there was any considerable change, and he saw the man blink his eyes. "He's coming out of it. Get him some water…" Damian let go of the man's tongue, he probably wanted it back.

His eyes still partially glazed, the man looked up at his wife. "Tessa? What happened?"

"You scared me, you big idiot!" Tessa's tears flowed down her eyes, but they were hardly tears of anguish. The tears had evolved to tears of joy and gratitude. "I didn't know what to do…" Tessa wiped her nose as she looked to the young man, "Thank you… so much."

"You should still have him go to the hospital when the paramedics come, miss," Damian felt the fluids on his hands, they weren't exactly the best feeling on his skin, but at least he saved the life of the man. "Seizures could be caused by something more extreme, so it would help to just look." He patted the man on the leg, "You, don't move at all until they get here, and drink just a little bit of water to get rid of the taste in your mouth."

"Here you go," Maxie handed the water to the man directly. He was up, she didn't need to pass it to Damian first. "I'm glad that you're all right."

A few minutes later the paramedics had came and taken Jeremiah, the man's in question, away. Tessa went in the ambulance with him, saying that she would never forget what Damian had done for her and for the man that she loved. The commotion form the incident had died down, but most of the people had just left Kelly's, watching someone have a seizure killed the appetite.

Damian was in the back, using the sink to wash his hands. He'd coated them at least three times with the soap that Mike had provided, but it didn't make it any easier. He could still feel the saliva and spit on his hands. It was so much different from the feeling that he had when he had Zander's blood coating his skin. Blood had a little consistency, it was more fluid.

"If you don't stop scrubbing, you're likely to scrub off your skin and then your bones. I don't think Maxie would like that. She wouldn't be able to hold your hand if you didn't have one." Elizabeth walked in. She had given him a few moments alone, but she felt that she needed to talk to him, to tell him what he did was one of the bravest things she'd ever seen anyone do before in her life.

"I could get one of those claw hands…"

"Yeah, but then she might prick her finger, that wouldn't be fun," Elizabeth held out a Styrofoam cup to him, covered with a spill-proof guard. "Here, Mike made it for you. Tea to clam your nerves."

Damian finally conceded that he had done all that he could do to clean his hands, wiping them dry and taking the offering without a moment's hesitation. The warmth of the tea soothed him instantly. "Grandpa makes the best green tea I've had."

"Come here," Elizabeth begged as she hugged Damian before letting him go.

"What was that for?"

"For doing what you did of course. It was really great the way you handled that."

"Well, if anyone should have been hugging me, it would have been Tessa, don't you think? It was her husband that I saved, not yours."

"Are you saying that you don't appreciate my hug?" Elizabeth giggled.

"No, I loved your hug, I'm just stating a fact is all." Damian's mind flashed to Tessa's face. "She was scared…"

"The man that she loved was doing something that she didn't know how to react to, that's really scary. Believe me, I know how that goes… and Ric wasn't even having a seizure, he was just doing something that was horrible, something that I couldn't grasp." Elizabeth knew that Ric was a different person now, but that didn't change the fact that he was like that at first. "You're a miracle worker."

"Stop praising me, I didn't do anything that you wouldn't have done if you knew how to handle it. I just did what was right." Damian put an arm over her shoulder, "Come on, let's go back out here, I could use a good sit down for a few minutes."

Maxie was sitting on one of the stools, looking at the door. She didn't want to smother her boyfriend, she knew where he was. When she saw him with his arm around Elizabeth she didn't feel any jealously. It was good to know that she didn't have to worry about him having his arms around someone else, because he was just being around one of his good friends. Maxie knew that Damian only loved her in the way that he did love her. It wasn't that he didn't love Elizabeth, but that love didn't compare to what they had. It was so much better than the relationship that she had with Kyle. She would have been so hurt if she saw him with his arms around someone else, because she thought he would leave her.

Damian let go of Elizabeth and sat down next to Maxie, resting his head on the counter for a moment. "Well, that was fun."

"No it wasn't, it was terrifying!" Maxie took a drink of her own cup. Unlike her boyfriend, she loved coffee, and coffee was what she had. She probably didn't need to be hyped up, especially after the display that she had just seen. "But you acted so calm and collected, that was great."

"She's got a point, kiddo," Mike said as he collected the plates from the recently vacated guests. "You did really good right there. I'm very proud of you, and I'm sure your dad would be, too." Mike walked back and put the plates down, "I don't think I'll ever look at a pie filler the same way now, though. You've shattered the innocence of the custard giver. I hope you're happy."

"I'll find a way to atone for that horrendous sin, grandpa. Somehow. I might have to kill a few chickens, maybe a goat… or a sheep, but I'll find a way." Damian thought about how he acted. How strong and collected he was, it was so different from the way he was acting when Sonny gave him the gun. It showed something to him. It showed him that he was still fit to be a doctor. The way that he acted when he was going to save a life was so different compared to how he acted when he thought he could put one in danger. He was more sure of himself in saving a life, that showed that he was still worthy of the position that he was hoping to fulfill. It didn't change what he did, but it made it easier for him to accept.

"Now that we're through with that crisis, do you mind telling me what you were doing up in your old apartment?" Mike really wanted to know, it was something that had been bugging him since his grandson had given him a half cold shoulder.

"I was looking for purpose, for direction. I didn't find it up there, though. I found it right here." The young man tenderly grabbed Maxie's hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. "I'm just glad that I was able to help the guy. Sometimes people who have seizures can choke on their tongue or the fluids that come out of their mouth during the attack, and when that happens it only goes downhill from there."

"I'd offer you a slice of pie, but I think we've all got to take a few days to ourselves before we can even stomach eating one… be it from Kelly's or just in general."

"You gave those people a chance at a wonderful Christmas, Damian," Maxie kissed him on the cheek once more. "You're like Santa. Without the beard and a whole lot younger… and cuter."

"I'm sure Santa doesn't like being thought of as inferior to me, Maxie," Damian smirked. "You might not get anything in your stocking this Christmas, not even a lump of coal."

"As long as you're with me, I don't care what I get for Christmas. But you know what would be really nice?"

"You trying to give me a subtle hint?" Damian cocked an eyebrow.

"No, I'm not good at being subtle, I'll just tell you what I want…"

"No you won't," Damian put a finger on her lips. "Where's the fun in that for me? I want to get you something special, and hopefully you'll love it."

"If it comes from you, I know I will," Maxie touched his cheek and smiled. She didn't really want anything else but him, although she wouldn't complain if she got other things.


	8. Topple

Joy- Reviews for me! Hurrah! Perhaps even a huzzah! Wow… that's a real word? Back to the point… trust me, I felt your pain. Hell, whatever you were going through as a reader was probably infinitesimal to what I was going through as the writer. I struggled to do something that would occupy my time like 'Shadows' did, all the while saying things like 'if I wrote a sequel… this is what would happen.' Sometimes I would fool myself into thinking that I wouldn't do it, but the urge to continue the saga that I toiled so hard on was much greater than the urge not to. Besides, it had been over a year since the first story started. Think of it as a late anniversary gift. There are many things that will happen to Damian, many things indeed, and, of course, things that will happen to the other people around him as well.

Isn't it easier to just read five chapters instead of… what was it? Fifty-seven or some odd number? Good thing you caught this story while it was just starting out. Yes, the fallout from the Alcazar incident will constantly drive Damian throughout this story, but it won't be the only thing. He'll probably never get over it, but he might find peace with the action that he took. You know… whenever I do things with this show it's inevitable that the occurrences of the show will somehow influence the story, but I seriously have reservations about the Kristina reveal. I mean, I don't deny that it would be great for Damian to find out that he has a little sister, and to watch him and Sonny butt heads constantly about the actions that he would seek to take in regards to the child, but one illegit child is enough for Sonny, at least in my mind. I'm not even going to put Alexis in the story more than likely. Maybe if I do a sequel to the sequel (you never know…) that will be part of it, but at this point in time there are no plans.

Story-

Morgan Household-

Courtney was half expecting to see Dillon on the couch, vegetating. The boy had been looking forward to Christmas break since October, and now that he finally had it she really did think that he would just be watching his movies on the big screen television that she had to admit had its perks. She had guilty pleasures that she enjoyed partaking in that she had given up when she moved in with Jason, but now, with the teenager, she could enjoy the 'Real World' once more. On low. Sometimes on mute, with subtitles. Some of them had the most annoying voices and she really didn't want to wake up either of her male housemates, one being her husband, the other being something of a ward to her, and have them look at her. Dillon would assume that she was 'just a girl,' an assumption that she wasn't fond of. Courtney was so much more than just a girl. She was a kickboxing girl.

She turned on the light, the smallest twitch of a frown appearing on her face. It was Christmas. She used to have a tree in the house. It was never a big tree, but it was a tree nonetheless. She liked Christmas trees. Courtney held her sadness well, though, "Explain to me again why we're coming to my house first?"

"Because I don't want Sonny to see just how much I bought during our little shopping spree in Manhattan!" Carly followed behind, holding bags upon bags of containers with designer labels.

"You wouldn't have to worry about embarrassing yourself if you actually shopped for someone other than yourself the whole time we were there," Courtney giggled as she watched Carly struggle with the girth of her accumulated purchases. "It's the season for giving."

"And I can't give a little to myself?" She asked as she finally toppled over, the weight causing her to lean forward too much, which spelled her doom. She sat there, on the ground, cushioned by the clothing that she had purchased. All she heard was the loud near-cackling of her best friend. Carly turned around and glared at Courtney, "Are you going to help me up?"

"No, I think this is one of those times when God sent us a sign, so if I helped you up I would get smited or something." Courtney was perfectly content watching Carly wallow in her materialism. Maybe she should have gotten the camera.

"Need I remind you of the fact that you helped me pick out a few of these outfits?" Carly forced herself up, "You're at least partially guilty for a good portion of these, Courtney. You told me that I looked good in them."

"Well, you did," Courtney admitted. Carly was the type of person that could wear just about anything and it would look good on her, probably a plastic bag if it was the right brand. Courtney didn't have that luxury, or maybe she thought she didn't. Jason was never really the type of person to tell her that she looked beautiful in something, but she knew not to ask Jason because he loved her anyway. "But I thought you would just wait until after Christmas to buy them."

"Why wait?" Carly gently tapped one of the bags with her foot, "I could give them to Sonny for a very private Christmas present…"

"One that cost him a few thousand dollars…"

"He won't complain, believe me," Carly imagined his face when he saw her in one of the satin nightgowns that she purchased, or, more importantly, how he would look when he was taking it off. "Besides, there are still a few days left to go shopping for everyone's presents, and I did get a few things during my splurge. I'm not completely selfish."

"What was it that you told me?" Courtney rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah, now I remember, 'This color is really bad on me, but it would look great on Mama.' Face it, Carly, you would have bought that scarf for yourself if you didn't like the color."

"But I didn't buy it for myself, and that's the point of Christmas, isn't it?"

"One of these days I'm really going to need to sit you down so that we can watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' In fact, I'm sure Dillon has the DVD… he seems to have everything else that's ever come out on one of them."

"How… how's he working out?" Carly asked. She knew that Jason would always have his reservations about letting a teenager live with him, and a Quatermaine teenager at that. Courtney had won the biggest battle that she could have waged against Jason, she should have been proud. Admittedly, Carly had grown adjusted to seeing Dillon walking down the hallway, or sitting in her living room when she came home. It was rough at first, but it got better. She'd never say that she liked the boy, but she tolerated him, for Courtney, and maybe a little for Damian.

"I love having him around, Carly," Courtney smiled. "Jason's gone a lot of times when I get home, but sometimes Dillon is around. We don't really talk all that much, but the fact that there's someone here, at the house, it just makes it feel more like a house rather than a fancy hotel room where I sleep with my husband on certain nights. I think this is how it would have felt if…"

"Don't think about that, Courtney. It's over. I know you'll never forget it. You never forget losing a child," Carly's own miscarriage still haunted her, and she would never forgive AJ for what he had done to cause that. "But I'm glad that Dillon makes you happy. You deserve all the happiness in the world."

"I think it helped Jason to have someone that was a Quatermaine around when Lila died. Michael helped, too, but he wouldn't have been able to listen to Jason in the way that Dillon can, and did." She could have helped. She knew Lila somewhat well, since she stayed in the mansion with AJ while they were married. Lila was the universal confidant, the person that anyone could go to when they had something that they wanted to say and she would listen and give her heart out to the person. Courtney would miss that most of all about Lila. Her death was something that touched so many more people than just the Quatermaine's.

"Not that he'd ever admit that a Quatermaine helped him," Carly scoffed. "But I bet he felt the same way that you think he felt. I would have thought the same thing if I really gave some time to the situation, and I like to think I know Jason pretty well."

"You do, Carly, you know you do." Courtney realized that if anyone could help her, it would be Carly. "Which is why I need to ask your opinion about something…"

"What is it?"

"I'm having a hard time thinking about what to get Jason for Christmas. I know he would say that he doesn't need anything, but he's my husband and I really want to get him something special this year. I try and get him something great all the time, but I want him to feel touched."

"Anything you get him touches him."

"Yeah, but I don't want him to be touched because I gave it to him simply because I'm his wife, I want him to be touched because I gave him something that has meaning to him. The problem with that is that he's just so damned hard to shop for. I don't want to get him something stupid like clothes, and I know that he would hate it if I dared even think about him switching leather jackets, so that tosses that idea out the window…" Courtney sighed. "You see where I'm coming from?"

"I do," Carly nodded. "But I can't help you."

"Can't? Or Won't?"

"Maybe a little of both," Carly didn't really know how to explain it, but she would try, and she would hope that it made some sense to both parties, more so Courtney than herself. "Courtney, if I help you pick out a present that has meaning from you, then it won't truly have meaning just from you. You want to make this special for Jason, and you're the only one who can make it special. That's the best help that I can give you right now."

"Not even a hint about an idea?" Courtney pouted.

"Well, maybe I would have helped you out if you would have helped me get up after I fell on my face!"

"So this is revenge then?" Courtney knew that her best friend was just joking around, but that was what she loved about Carly, they were able to trade barbs and still hug and go do things together afterwards.

"Something like that," Carly started looking at the bags, "So, we should probably separate these into which bags are yours and which bags are mine."

Courtney bent down and grabbed two bags, "Okay, we're done."

"Now I know you bought more than that!"

"No, really, I didn't," Courtney put the bags on the couch. "That was everything that I bought, which is why I think you went a little overboard on the purchasing, Carly. Look at all these bags that are left."

"My God… did Nordstrom's have a sale that was only for a few minutes and you two just had to start buying like crazy?" Dillon had walked into the room for his own bedroom, looking at the two women and their goods, the bought kind… the clothing.

"No comments from the high school student!" Carly snapped at Dillon. "And, for your information, we didn't even go to Nordstrom's."

"Or we'd probably have an extra few bags in tow…"

Carly looked at Courtney, "Not funny!"

"I thought it was," Dillon grinned and chuckled.

"I thought I told you not to say anything!" Carly picked up some of her bags, "I think I'm going to just do this in shipments. Or leave a few bags over here until the New Year, that way Sonny thinks I went on a post Christmas spree."

"What's he going to say when you do go on your post Christmas spree and bring home bags from that and your pre Christmas spree?" Dillon continued walking down the stairs, the grin never leaving his face.

"Boy you don't really know when to stop, do you?" Carly tried to open the door, but failed miserably at it.

Dillon walked over and turned the knob for her, "Not when you make it so easy, Carly."

"One day I'm going to show you just how hard I can be to make fun of, boy, just you wait," She stuck her tongue out at him and headed down the hallway.

"Well, I've been threatened by Mrs. Carly Corinthos. Should I start counting the days until I end up missing and get thrown in the bottom of the lake?" Dillon was being entirely tongue in cheek. He and Carly had a strange relationship, as in to say that they didn't really have one, but they didn't hate each other, and that said something, didn't it? Most people seemed to have that opinion about Carly, and Dillon could see why. She was a bitch, but that was an endearing quality about her. She was a bitch who just wouldn't stop pushing, and if someone that she cared about ended up being hurt, she wouldn't give up on them. More people needed to be like Carly.

"I think I can keep you safe."

"Action Hero Courtney!" Dillon exclaimed, "I'm sure you cost a lot. Do I pay by the day, or by the punch and the kick?"

"For you, I'll give the friends and family discount…"

"Which am I?" Dillon really wanted to know. Was he Courtney's friend, or was he a member of her family? For that matter, how did Jason think about him? Dillon was all too well aware of the fact that Jason had disowned his Quatermaine name and most of the frills that came with that name, but they were still blood. Did that mean something, anything, to Jason?

"You're family, Dillon, you know that," Courtney felt bad for the boy. He didn't really understand his place in the house, did he really think that he was just a tolerated guest? She didn't want him to think that. She wanted him to feel welcome in her home, because it was his home, too. "We're going to have our first Christmas together here, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Maybe we can double team Jason and get him to make a gingerbread house."

"Do you really see Jason building a gingerbread house?"

"Maybe… I can dream, can't I?"

"So… what's in the bag? Presents for me?" Dillon walked toward the bags.

"Don't touch those! There's nothing in there for you!"

"You see, Courtney, I know how you people act… when you say that there's nothing in there for me it means that there is something in there for me… let's take a look, shall we?" Dillon reached down and pulled out a garment of clothing. He unfolded it, and, once he realized that it was a bra, put it back in the bag quickly.

"If that was for you… well, I'd like to know now why you want bras…"

"Fine, you win… nothing in the bag for little Dillon… and now I have this undying urge to wash my hands… and my eyes." Dillon grimaced as he looked at the bags and turned away in a quick motion. When he heard Courtney laughing, likely at the face that he made, he couldn't help but laugh with her. Maybe he was family. It was what he wanted.


	9. The Diner of Gratuitous Praise

Kelly's-

Georgie, still equipped in her candy striper uniform, came bolting through the doors. Kelly's was still empty, but the buzz around the hospital made it the place of the hour. She was working at the desk when the emergency crew brought in the man who had gone into a seizure while eating at the establishment, and she heard him and his wife speak of the young man who had saved the life of the victim. He was taken away and, when she checked last, he was still being examined, but he was highly grateful for what had been done.

All Georgie wanted to do was see if this mysterious hero was still around. Not because she wanted to flaunt herself at him, she still had Dillon and she felt that her heart would always belong to him and him alone, but she thought it would have been so cool to speak with an actual hero. The wife said that he wasn't even a doctor, so it was just some random person. It was humbling to Georgie, realizing that there were people like that who could and did help people just because it was the right thing to do, learning how to help people because they felt that they should have.

She saw her sister and Damian, who had since located to one of the tables in the dead area. Excitedly, she turned around, and the excitement fell quickly. "I missed him!"

"Who?" Maxie asked. "Dillon?" It made sense that her little sister would be so happy to see Dillon Quatermaine, but if that was the truth, then Maxie had to be the bearer of bad news. "Georgie, if you had a date with Dillon here then I guess he missed it, because we've been here for awhile and neither of us have seen him."

"He was at Jason's earlier," Damian informed Georgie, also on the wavelength that Maxie appeared to be on, thinking that Georgie would have only been so giddy if it was Dillon that she was clamoring over. He didn't even fathom that she was looking for him, neither did she. Thinking about Dillon made Damian feel even worse about the way that he had treated his best friend. Dillon deserved better than Damian had given him earlier. He needed to apologize. He couldn't help that he was so traumatized by the experiences that he went through, but that, in no way, made it acceptable for Damian to drill poor, innocent Dillon. Maybe he should have gotten Dillon a vat of hair gel as penance. Imported, from Switzerland. They made good hair products, didn't they? "He never mentioned going out with you, Georgie. Not that I gave him much of a chance…"

Maxie raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend. He seemed… remorseful. "What do you mean? How did you not give him a chance?"

Unaware that he had said the last statement in a way that made it listenable, Damian found himself taking the defensive, which was rare. He was usually the supporter, the one who was trying to talk to people when they had done something wrong. That didn't mean that he never did anything wrong, as his current situation proved. "It's something that I need to apologize to him for. I didn't hurt his feelings… I hope, but I wasn't as receptive towards his offer for help as I should have been. Quite the opposite, I nearly told him to blow off…"

"Did you mean to?" Georgie asked. She was trying not to take her boyfriends side, because she didn't know the whole story and the situation seemed to be something that Damian would rarely engage in. He wasn't the type who got into fights with people, and when he did it wasn't because he was a mean person.

"Of course not, Georgie," Damian didn't want to talk about it anymore. He didn't want to keep on reliving that moment, and the moments that came before it. They were painful for him. He may have been reassured in his purposes, but he didn't want to be constantly reminded of his doubts. "Look, both of you, I appreciate what you're trying to do by helping me out right now, but this is something that I need to apologize for myself. It's probably not that big of a deal, I'm probably taking it way out of proportion, but I'll deal with it."

"If that's what you want to do, then we'll support you," Maxie put her hand over his and gave it a gentle pat. She knew that something was bugging him, maybe it wasn't the way that he had treated Dillon, maybe it was, but there was something that Damian wanted to get off his chest, needed to get off his chest. "Just come to us if you need some help. Isn't that right, Georgie?"

"Yeah, of course! You're more than my sister's boyfriend, Damian, you're one of my really good friends, someone who I know I can come to if I need some help, a guy that I can talk to about my problems with Dillon. Before… the only person I could speak to about it was Mac, and he was always threatening to throw Dillon in jail simple for making me shed a tear because he said something that hurt my feelings or because he forgot about something that was important to me. You're a big improvement over that."

"Being compared to your father isn't exactly what I was expecting from either of you, but I'll take it as a compliment." Especially considering that he was the son of the mob king, being compared to the commissioner, the near polar opposite of his father, was odd. But in many ways, Sonny and Damian were separated. Damian was close to Mac in a lot of ways, maybe that was why they had such a volatile relationship. They weren't friends, they tolerated each other for Maxie's sake, but at least they didn't hate each other. Mac had helped Damian when he was in jail, too. That was something that Damian did appreciate, but it didn't change much. They wouldn't hang out in the backyard waiting for Maxie to get ready for a date. "Thank you, both of you."

"No problem," Maxie worried about her love, hoping that he was strong enough to make it through whatever it was that was causing him so much grief. He had helped her when she had a relapse of purpose. He was the only one who talked her down from that dark part of her mind. What if she couldn't' do the same for him? What did that mean? That he didn't value her as much as she valued him? No, of course not. Sometimes people needed to battle things on their own, no matter what. Maxie may not have had that time in her life, but maybe Damian was going through his.

"Well… I was all excited, and now I don't know what to feel," Georgie sulked. "I don't even think the hero guy is here anyway, I think I got overzealous."

"Hero guy?" Maxie laughed, what a lame name.

Damian was also somewhat interested in the 'hero guy' that was apparently supposed to be at Kelly's. While he was looking at Georgie his gaze was diverted when he saw Ric walk into the restaurant. Ric saw him and smiled, giving a soft wave, Damian returned it with a nod of his head.

"Yeah, there was this guy who had a seizure here at Kelly's earlier today. I would have thought that you would have been here if you've been around for a bit… did you see?"

"Yes, we did," Damian realized just what was going on. The 'hero guy' was him.

"It was scary," Maxie was also aware of the moniker, but figured that she would let her little sister sweat it out a bit. Not out of malice, just a good natured prank against Georgie. The type that big sisters were good for. "I was so afraid."

"Well, this guy, the hero, he helped save the seizure victim's life. The wife said that he acted so quickly and confidently while everyone else was worrying about her husband and not doing anything. I don't know, I just thought that I would come and see if the guy was still here so I could tell him how impressed everyone back at the hospital is."

"Like who?" Maxie tried to hide her grin. Georgie really had no clue that she was talking about Damian, to her, it was hilarious. But why wouldn't he be considered a hero? He saved a life, that was something heroic.

"Alan, Monica and Bobbie, for starters. Even Audrey and Uncle Tony were talking about it."

"Was it a slow day at the hospital?" Damian asked. Why would he be the talk of some of the best medical minds in the county? He saved a life, they saved thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, in their years of service, but he had saved one and everyone was treating him like he was something special. He felt Maxie smack his shin with her foot. "I mean, that's great… but… I don't know, I don't think that the person would want so much attention for doing something that just came naturally."

"Who doesn't like attention?" Georgie didn't believe a word that was coming out of Damian's mouth. People craved the spotlight, it was just the way that they were. Georgie craved it just as much as the next person. It didn't mean that she got it, but she wanted it.

"True heroes," Elizabeth came out from behind the wall, she smiled at Ric and started walking towards him, "are those that do what they do because it's the right thing to do, Georgie. Not because they can get attention and their face in the paper for it. I think that was the last thing from the guy's mind while he was saving that man's life."

"Did you guys see him?" Georgie asked her sister and Damian. The excitement had returned.

Ric hugged Elizabeth. He hadn't heard about the medical fit at the restaurant but he was glad that everything turned out okay. He kissed his girlfriend on the forehead, "Are you okay? You're not jittery about what happened?"

"I was, but I knew that the guy was in good hands when I saw who was working on him…" Elizabeth looked at Damian and winked.

"Answer the question!" Georgie was losing her temper. They were holding out on her, she could sense it. They knew who the guy was and they weren't telling her. They were all so mean!

"I see him every day," Damian replied. "I'm sure that he wouldn't like being called a hero, Georgie."

"How do you know…" she refused to believe him. Not because she didn't trust him, but because she was sure that he didn't really know.

"Because, Georgie, you're looking at the 'hero guy.' Damian was the one who saved the life of Jeremiah," Maxie started laughing at her little sister, and especially laughed so much more when she saw Georgie blushing.

"You really did that, Damian?" Ric asked. He was impressed. He knew that his nephew was a good guy, a guy who was going to be a doctor, but to save a person at random, just like that, it was something special.

"Please, don't make a big deal out of it, all of you," Damian pleaded. "I did what I was supposed to do, can we just leave it at that?"

"Damian, you don't have to be so humble," Ric was trying to be supportive. Damian deserved something. "What you did… was really worth at least some praise."

"Ric's right, Damian," Mike finally returned from behind in the kitchen, too. "I'd bake a cake, but right now anything sweet… just wouldn't be appealing."

"Wait a minute, did you just say that I was right?" Ric was astonished.

"Don't think that it's a habit, Lansing," Mike countered. "Occasionally, very occasionally, you can say something that is actually worth mentioning. I don't expect it to happen again anytime soon, though."

"Mike… Ric's a part of Damian's family just as much as you are," Elizabeth always found herself defending Ric and his place in Damian's life.

"Can we not do this right here, please?" Damian asked, getting up from the chair. "If you guys are going to just engage in the Corbin against Lansing battle again, do it without me stuck in the crossfire, would you?"

"Damian!" Maxie got up, but she stopped herself, watching the young man walk out of the diner. She looked at Mike and Ric. "I hope you guys are happy. You're both going from praising him to making him feel uncomfortable. That's seriously got to be a record of some kind."

"I shouldn't have taken that moment to attack Ric, but I won't apologize for not liking the man."

"Nobody is expecting you to walk around hand in hand while singing the yellow brick road, but at least you could try and be civil towards one another while he's around," Elizabeth was with Maxie in this battle. She hated the animosity, understandable as it was. She just wanted to get rid of it. "Family means so much to him, and he knows that you will never be together in that way, but he tries to play peacekeeper as much as he can. I understand where he's coming from."

"Should we go talk to him?" Ric knew that it was only a matter of time before he ended up pushing away the one member of his family that could tolerate him. It was the last thing that he wanted.

"I think that you've done enough for now, Ric," Maxie said scornfully. She didn't understand why Damian cared about Ric as much as he did, but she loved him because he was willing to look past the faults of everyone that was around, even her. "I'll go talk to him. Georgie, do you want to come with me?"

"No, thanks… just make sure he's all right."

Maxie didn't have to look far for him. He was right around the corner, out of the sight of those that were in the restaurant, but still around. He wasn't crying. She'd never seen him cry, but he was obviously upset. "I'm so sorry that you had to see that."

"I don't ask for much, Maxie. I really don't ask for much. It's not like I'm asking for the world. I don't even ask for a dinner together with everyone that I'm related to in Port Charles… I just ask for some peace from the snide remarks that I hear whenever they're around Uncle Ric. And I can't even get that…"

"Come here," Maxie hugged him, doing her best to comfort him when he needed her. "Maybe they don't like each other, but they all care about you. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Yeah," Damian nodded, "but it might not ever be enough."


	10. Oversights

Joy- Banter is something that I enjoy doing. It's amusing and it cuts down on the drama that seems to swallow the lives of the residents of Port Charles whole. Yes, I don't think we've ever had a Carly and Dillon moment either, or a Dillon and Sonny moment. We do, however, get the golden moments of Dillon and Jason every so often, and my heart mends itself whenever those two are on screen at the same time. It's a pity, too, since at the moment the show is more comedy than drama and Carly and Dillon are two of the funniest people on the show. Minus the Rexis, of course.

Sonny's Super Sperm has been an enigma to many of us, Joy. We don't understand how he does it, but he does. It's like he merely must kiss a woman to get her knocked up. Fascinating thing.

Corinthos Household-

Carly was looking frantically around the home. While it was able to hold her dreams and more it didn't make for optimal hiding space after one of her many yearly shopping sprees. She swore to herself that it would be the last one that she had before the end of the year, which was only a week and a half away. She had a feeling that she would be breaking that vow. After Christmas sales were a harsh, cruel mistress. She'd just have to find something that would occupy her time before she got her mind set on spending more of Sonny's hard earned money. Besides, there were still bags over at Courtney's, so it didn't look like she was doing too badly.

Sonny came down from their bedroom. He had checked on Michael, who was now happily content playing with his Game Boy. Sonny would never understand the appeal of the video games to the children. They were loud, they were obnoxious, and, try as hard as he could, Sonny could never get past the third world of Super Mario Brothers. When Sonny couldn't do something, Sonny instantly became embittered with that which he couldn't do. Nintendo needed to do something about making games that people who were over 20 could pick up and have some fun. Michael could do it with his eyes closed, but the kid obviously had skills that Sonny didn't know how to properly harness.

"Do I need to keep my eyes averted from the things inside the bag?" Sonny asked, a wry grin appearing on his face as he descended down the final steps. "There's nothing in there for me, is there?"

"Well, that just depends on what you think is yours, Sonny," Carly stated coyly. "I can tell you for certain that there is nothing in any of these bags that would fit you… well, that would fit you and that you would wear, unless you have a fetish for wearing my nightgowns while I'm away."

"Well, there was this one time…"

"Sonny!" Carly's jaw dropped in shock. Was he being serious? He had wore her gowns?

"I'm joking, Carly, don't worry about it. Lace isn't my thing." Sonny walked over and gave her a short, but passionate kiss. Passionate kisses for his wife were the only kisses that he could give Carly. The only kisses that she would accept. She had a high standard for kisses.

"You don't mind touching it when it's on me…"

"I don't mind touching anything that's on you… and I certainly don't mind touching you when there's nothing at all on you."

"Maybe Santa will bring you a nice Christmas present sometime soon, then. You might even get something early."

"Santa doesn't give early Christmas presents, Carly. It's a rule."

"Well, maybe Santa can break the rule, just this once," Carly nuzzled her head on Sonny's chest, basking in the feel that she got when she was around her husband. He made her world complete, and she hated the idea that she was keeping one thing from him that would shatter that. She couldn't ever let it get out to anyone. Nobody knew. The only man who did know was dead, and he wasn't going to talk anymore. Even if he could talk, Lorenzo would have never stated what Carly's plans were. He would have never betrayed her. He was loyal, scarily loyal, to the point of obsession. She was glad that he was gone. Glad that the only one who knew about her prior plots was her alone.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind breaking a single rule… but only this once," Sonny gently stroked her hair. He liked running his hand through her hair.

"On second thought," Carly pushed away from Sonny, Cheshire grin apparent on her face, "I really want that one special present that only Santa can give me, and if I break a rule I might not get it from him. Not going to take the chance, Mr. Corinthos."

"You know that he'll get you whatever you want. Santa's nothing if not a just and kind man…"

"Nope," Carly shook her head. "You're not sweet talking your way out of this, and don't even try that dimple thing. I've devised a defense system against it. It's foolproof."

"And what would that be?" Sonny asked, smiling so that his dimples did indeed show. They were the downfall of many before Carly.

"Just not looking at them," Carly turned around, but found herself looking in the mirror, "Dammit, I can't get away from them!"

"Admit it," Sonny walked up behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder, "you can't beat them, no matter how hard you try." Sonny looked at he and his wife in the mirror, connected in so many ways, both physical and spiritual. He ran his band-wearing hand and laced it with the hand that she wore her own wedding ring on.

"I'd hate to admit to something that isn't true, Sonny," Carly turned her head away. "Don't want to let your ego get even bigger." She saw something that caught her eye. It wasn't something that she would have noticed if she didn't look in that general direction at that moment. She walked away from Sonny, investigating even more. The compartment where he held his gun was slightly opened.

"So, what is in all these bags, then? Presents for the kids? Morgan's easy to shop for, but Michael hasn't even given us his list yet…"

"Sonny…"

"Yeah?"

Carly didn't want to touch the gun. She didn't like the way that she acted when she had them in her hands. She'd shot someone in open court, that was a good sign that she didn't need to be touching any guns anytime soon. "Why is this open?"

Sonny looked to see what Carly was talking about. He saw the handle of the gun and he silently cursed himself. He shouldn't have been so careless. Not with children around. Michael knew that if he saw a gun he wasn't supposed to touch it, but that didn't mean that the lesson would always win out in the end. Childlike curiosity often won out against even the most well-preached lessons. "I didn't mean to leave it open like that, I thought I closed it."

"Well, you didn't," Carly's tone showed that she was angry at her husband. She had every right to be. Children were shot because of people being careless. It was the last thing that she ever expected Sonny to be. Sonny knew better. "What if Michael saw it, Sonny?"

"Michael hasn't been down here… I know that doesn't make it okay, but he doesn't know."

"Why was it out in the first place?" Carly was so engrossed in the mistake of her husband that she didn't even hear Courtney open the door.

Sonny, likewise distracted, didn't hear her either. "I put it away after I gave the gun to Damian."

"Why would you do something like that?" Courtney spoke up, because now she was also miffed at her big brother. Handing a gun to Damian was not something that she felt anyone should have been doing. Especially after the way that he handled himself the last time a gun fell into his possession. "Sonny… I can't believe you would do something so irresponsible."

"It was a test, Courtney," Sonny responded, being completely honest. It was a test, after all, a test that he passed.

"A test of what? How soon he could start working for you out in the field?" Courtney would never back down against Sonny. She was one of the only people who never did. If Sonny pushed her, she would push back. She was a strong, opinionated woman, and nobody, not even Sonny Corinthos, was going to take that away from her.

Sonny hid the hurt that he felt from the scathing words of his sister. Did she think so lowly of him? Did she think that he wanted any of his children, regardless of their age, to be like him? Shouldn't she have known him better than that? "It was a test to prove to him that he wasn't turning into me."

"Why would he think something like that?" Carly could never see Damian being the type of person that Sonny was. He could never be that confident in himself. It was sad that he wouldn't, but she saw something in him that showed her that he wouldn't be the type of man that Sonny was.

"Because of what happened with Alcazar," Sonny closed the compartment that the gun was in, hearing it shut and latch. "There, now nobody is going to see it and none will be the wiser. He was afraid of becoming too adjusted to the fact that he killed a man, even though he did it because it was in defense of himself and of those that he cared about. He thinks that if he doesn't feel some amount of grief over what happened on that night that he's somehow less of a human."

"That just doesn't make any sense," Courtney regretted the intensity of her words to Sonny, he was just trying to make his son feel better. While he certainly could have picked a much better way of doing it, that didn't change the fact that it was all because of Sonny's love of Damian. "We've all told him that he did what he needed to do."

"And he knows that, but he doesn't think that it excuses the fact that someone died because of his actions," Sonny sat down on the chair. "I don't see how he's going to keep himself from feeling like this when he becomes a doctor. I know this is a harsh thing to say, but he's never going to be able to save everyone from dying. Nobody is that good. How's he going to feel when that happens?"

"Can we get off the topic, please?" Carly begged. Damian still wasn't her favorite person on the face of the earth, but she did feel for him, and she was slowly adjusting to him being in their life. She was even thinking about what she was going to get him for Christmas, that had to say something about the level of comfort that she had around the boy, didn't it?

"Sonny… look, I'm sorry. It's just that I care about him so much and I don't want to see him suffering."

"And I do?" Sonny turned his intense glare on his little sister.

"No, of course you don't, which is why I'm apologizing. I know you were acting in his best interests."

"He passed, if that matters to either of you," Sonny figured that they had both asked themselves how he did, but maybe they didn't. "I held the gun out to him, told him that all he needed to do was touch it, hold it firmly, knowing what it could do, knowing what it would probably do again. I've never seen him shake so much… not since that night. But I told him that because of the fact that he couldn't handle the gun that he wasn't turning into someone who could take it and use it like me, or like Jason."

"Are you sure he took it like that?" Courtney was still working her best to be Damian's support system. Out of all the adults that he had in his life, she was the one who he could likely cling to the most, since they both had a similar way of looking at things.

"I told him the truth, how he took it is something that I can't ever know. I'm not a mind-reader… and I still don't know the boy as well as I would like to admit. Hopefully he'll start coming to me more and more, especially now. I know I can help him, I can guide him. I want to help him."

"We all do," Carly sat next to her husband, feeling his anguish tear at him and tear at her as well. "It should get better. I mean, how many people can be miserable around Christmas?"

"I know plenty of people," Sonny quipped. "My brother, for one. But I'm sure he'll do fine. Christmas is a time to be around family, and he's always depended on his family to help him when he needed it. He might not have the Zuniga's, but he has us. This is his first time away from them… that might make it harder, which makes our job even harder, too."

"We'll do our best to make sure that he has the best holiday that he can have," Carly, miraculously, was the first to jump on the bandwagon, which made Sonny and Courtney both wonder if they weren't seeing their first Christmas miracle of the season.

"Why'd you come anyway, Courtney?" Sonny changed the subject, because it was depressing and not very festive.

"I wanted to have Carly give me a hand getting the rest of her things from my place, they're crowding the walkway. I don't want to have to feel like I'm playing twister just to get into my living room."

Sonny shook his head in disgust and amusement. "You're telling me that there are… more… bags?"

"Many," Courtney informed her dear brother.

Carly got off the couch and walked past Courtney, elbowing her in the gut softly, "Traitor!"

"Carly," Sonny began, "if there was a way to max out a limitless credit card, I'm sure that you would find some way to do it. Do you need some help?"

"No, that's fine, we can hire Dillon to do some cheap labor," Carly really just didn't want Sonny to see how many bags were around. He wouldn't be amused.


	11. Redecoration Proposal

Morgan Household-

Courtney walked into the house once more. There really weren't that many bags when three people were carrying them from one end of the hall to the other. Carly had some colorful words to say to Courtney the whole time, but Courtney just laughed. She wasn't hurt by Carly's words, she was more amused than anything. Sonny needed to get Carly her own apartment, just to hold all the things that she bought. She scarcely got rid of anything. Being a packrat and a shopping demon did not make for a very pleasant combination.

Dillon didn't stay in Sonny's house for very long. She had seen that a few times. He tried to get out as fast as possible. Sonny was intimidating to him, even with the cusp of being Damian's best friend and Jason's cousin there was something about Sonny that scared Dillon.

"Thanks for the help, Dillon. We both appreciate it," she let out a heavy sigh of relief when she could walk straight from the doorway into the living room without worrying about tripping over anything.

"No problem, Courtney. You're letting me stay here, I can carry a few bags for free if it means room and board and food. I make out like a bandit in the end. You know, my mom would just laugh at me for helping you. She'd say something about how I shouldn't worry about helping people that were beneath me. But I don't think that anyone is beneath me. My family is rich, but that doesn't make us better than other people…"

"I'm glad that you realize that," Courtney saw Dillon for who he was, a good young man with a level head on his shoulders. Somehow he was able to keep that spark of sanity amid being around the family who seemed to spew values that were anti-everything that seemed to be worth valuing.

"A lot of people helped me realize that. Georgie, you, Jason, but most of all my grandmother…"

"Hey… Dillon… do you want to deck this place out for Christmas?" Courtney figured that the best way to get his mind off of losing someone that was so dear to him and to the rest of the people in the town. "We don't usually do much, but now that you're here I figure that we can. I mean, this is your home, which means that this is your Christmas, too."

"Jason wouldn't like it if we did that, would he?" Dillon asked, ever mindful of the fact that he was merely a guest in the house of Morgan. A guest that could be thrown out without a second thought.

"We live in a democracy, Dillon. Now there are three of us here, that means that even if Jason doesn't want us to decorate the house and we do, we win."

"You think that'll work?" Dillon asked, not buying the democracy idea. Mobsters with a vote. That was ironic, wasn't it?

"Dillon, do you want to have a nice Christmas here or not? It's up to you. But, if you want my opinion, I've always wanted to make this place a little less drab during the season, but Jason didn't want it and I didn't want to impose on him."

"So you want me to impose on him? Impose on him more than I already do, I mean…"

"You don't impose on either of us, Dillon. We like having you here. Really, we don't have any complaints. Our biggest fear was that you were going to clog up the sink with hair gel, but that hasn't happened yet, so everything is fine."

"I don't waste hair gel, it's a sin," Dillon retorted. He looked around the house. There were so many things that could be nice to have around. Some garland, maybe a few lights. But most important was the tree. "Could we… get a tree?"

"Of course we can get a tree, Dillon. You can't have a good Christmas without a tree…"

"Yeah, I know, even when me and my mom were staying around the places that we stayed in Europe, each Christmas she would get me a small little tree for the room. It was never that big, but it helped put me in the mood, in the season. It's a fond memory. One of the only ones that I have with my mother."

Courtney went up to Dillon and softly put a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to build some memories for you here, too, Dillon. Don't worry, this will be a good Christmas for you, I promise."

"I believe you," Dillon wanted a nice Christmas. It could have been his last with Georgie. They were going to graduate and then what? Would they stay together? Their love was fated, or so they told themselves over and over, but did that mean that it could survive the distance that was placed on it? Even though they planned on going to the same place, it really didn't seem like it was going to happen. Film schools didn't make the best technical schools, the schools that Georgie wanted to go to. And the preppy Ivy League schools that she had always dreamed of didn't churn out that many famous directors.

Even though the door was open, Damian still felt that he needed to knock. It was his Aunt and Uncle's home, but he wasn't the type of person who would walk into a house that wasn't his own without knocking, unless he was accompanied by someone who lived in the house. He also felt the undying urge to apologize to Dillon, and in order to do that, he needed to speak with Dillon. "Can I come in?"

"You never have to ask," Courtney gave a warm, welcoming smile. She hid the fact that she was really worried about him. "Did you need something?"

"Just to speak with Dillon, Aunt Courtney, but if you guys are busy, I can come back… I'll just stand out in the Hallway while Carly gets rid of whatever it is that she's battling in the walkway of the house…"

"Get inside here," Courtney ordered. "Actually, maybe you can help us… what do you think, Dillon?"

"We're going to cut us down a Christmas tree," Dillon boasted. "You want to come along?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to just buy one from a lot like normal people?" Damian didn't see the fun in going into the forest and looking around for the perfect tree. It was cold!

"Normal people go cut their own trees down, in the forest."

"You forget, I'm from Los Angeles, we don't have forests."

"Oh, right," Dillon smirked. He'd forgotten. It didn't matter where Damian was from anyway. Although when they first met it was a certain plus. He knew someone who was from Los Angeles, that was where Hollywood was. "Well, we're not getting a tree from the lot, we're going to get out and cut one. I like cutting down defenseless trees."

"Don't say that around environmentalists," Damian warned. He'd seen plenty of them in his time. They were especially rampant around the more business oriented areas of his hometown. He was all for saving the earth, preserving it for the future generations, but he also knew that for something to get done in life there needed to be progress, maybe not complete destruction, but Los Angeles was already too late to save. "Look… Dillon… about…"

"Don't," Dillon shook his head. "I feel bad about what happened, and I know that you were just hurt."

"So… we're done being mad at each other?"

"I wasn't aware we had really started being mad at each other," Dillon wasn't mad at Damian. Was Damian mad at him?

"I wasn't mad at you. I just thought that you might have been at me. Never had a best friend before, this is all pretty new to me."

"Does anyone want to explain what happened here to me? You know, the adult?" Courtney was perplexed. She wanted to know, but maybe she didn't need to. The boys seemed to be dealing with it just fine on their own.

"Its water under the bridge now, Aunt Courtney," Damian was glad that it was a dropped subject. One less thing to cause him grief when he slept at night. He already had more than enough things to keep him up at night, fighting with Dillon didn't need to be on that list.

"It was stupid anyway. I blame Brando."

"Are you allowed to do that?" Damian glanced at Dillon. "I mean, you worship the man… blaming him for something, isn't that sacrilege?"

"He's dead… I think I can get away with it."

"Come on, you two, if we're going to do this tonight then we're going to need to do it before Jason gets back. He'll try to stop us…" Courtney didn't want to argue with Jason about getting a tree, but she somehow doubted that he would be all for the idea. Maybe he was just allergic to pine? But then he helped Sonny decorate the tree each year, so that idea seemed a bit out of place.

"Wait," Damian thought of something. "Maybe Michael will want to come along? Do you think I should go ask?"

"We'll need all the help we can get," Courtney didn't see how much help Michael could be, maybe in lugging the tree back he could pick up a side and carry it a little, but he could pick out a good one. Jason wouldn't want to dare burn down a tree that Michael picked, would he? Maybe if it was in his house, but the Michael factor was as good a defense as they were going to get. "Go get him, I'll see what I can do about getting the truck, I don't think any of the cars will take having a tree on their roof very well."

Damian walked down the hallway into his own home. There was still a great deal of things in the way, but he was able to sidestep them. "Dad, is Michael sleeping?"

Sonny, who was mentally counting the bags, looked up at his boy, "No, he was playing his video game the last time I saw him. Why?"

"We're going to go look for a Christmas tree…"

"I usually have someone do that for me," Sonny said, erroneously thinking that the tree was for his own home. "You don't need to go to all the trouble of looking for one yourself."

"It's not for the house, dad, it's for Uncle Jason's…"

"Jason? A Christmas tree? In Jason's house?" Sonny tried to comprehend the idea. A tree, in Jason's house. With lights. And candy canes? "Are you sure about this?"

"What's the worst that could happen, dad?" Damian asked.

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Sonny's response fell on deaf ears as Damian traveled up the stairs into the upper level of the home. "They're not going to use any of my ornaments," Sonny mused to himself as visions of Jason tossing the tree out the window flashed in his head.

"Michael!" Damian called as he got up the stairs. "Could you come out here for a second?"

Michael stopped playing his game the second that he heard his big brother's voice. He loved spending time with Damian, learning from him, trying to act like him. That was more important than a video game.

When Damian saw his little brother, he knelt down, "Do you want to go somewhere with me, Michael?"

"Where?" Michael would go anywhere with Damian, except to the bad man's house, but Damian would never ask him to go there. Still, he was curious.

"We're going to get a Christmas Tree for Uncle Jason's apartment."

"But Uncle Jason's never had a tree in his apartment before…"

"We're starting a new tradition," Damian was beginning to think that Christmas was taboo in the house of Morgan. "But we're going to get the tree right now, and we thought that maybe you would want to come along and help us pick it out. If you don't want to, you don't have to…"

"No, I want to!" Michael rarely got to pick out a tree. He did it a few times, but that sort of stopped. He didn't mind as long as he had a big tree for himself.

"Get your coat, then," Damian watched Michael run back into the room and a sad smile came on his face. He remembered a time when he was that happy about Christmas. Too bad that it was a time that was long since gone. Now it was little more than another day on the calendar, but he wouldn't ruin the Christmas of everyone else just because he didn't care for the day.


	12. Too Much Pine

Forests of Port Charles-

"How about this one?" Damian asked. The excitement that the three other people who were with him had not rubbed off on him while they were in the truck, and it had failed to rub off on him while they were looking around, in the freezing cold, for one tree. Damian had seen hundreds of trees already, he had the undying urge to just count them all, just to point out how many 'perfectly good trees' they had all decided to pass up.

"Too small," Dillon observed the tree. He wasn't going to pick any old tree. It had to be something special for his first Christmas with the Morgan's. That tree wouldn't even fill up half the space that he had allotted for the tree, and he was just talking about from top to bottom.

"That one over there?" Damian pointed to another nearby tree. It was larger. Surely it would suffice.

"No, not enough branches," Dillon grinned. While it was true that the tree did not have an adequate amount of branches, he was enjoying watching Damian squirm in the cold. Did it make him a little bit of a sadist? Probably, but it was still fun to see the normally calm and cool young man act a little more… human.

"And I take it the one behind me doesn't break out into song and dance and have a self-decorating feature…" Damian muttered.

"Actually, that tree behind you isn't even a pine tree, its oak…"

"I hate you," Damian started to laugh.

"No, really, it's an oak tree, look," Dillon spun him around, showing Damian the fact that was now right in front of his face. He had picked one of the scant few oak trees that were in the area.

"Any luck?" Courtney asked, coming up behind them, Michael holding her hand. She and her nephew had gone in search of the perfect tree in the other general direction, and had come up with nothing.

"I've seen plenty of trees…"

"But none of them are the right one," Dillon cut in.

Damian shook his head, "If it looks like a pine tree and smells like a pine tree, it's a pine tree. That pretty much fulfills any of the requirements that come with 'being a pine tree…' how can you say that all of them aren't the right ones?"

"Because they aren't," Dillon was having a lot of fun. He wished Christmas came more often, because tree shopping with Damian was quickly becoming a favorite pastime of his.

"My daddy always gets the best Christmas tree around," Michael chimed in. "Maybe he could get another one for you and Uncle Jason and Dillon."

Courtney knelt down, her knees becoming engrossed in the snow that surrounded her, "Sweetie, that's a great offer, but we're already here so we might as well get a tree. Besides, we'll find one, eventually."

"Let's just hope that we don't all freeze to death while we're looking," Damian was slowly beginning to lose feeling in various parts of his body. His face was numb already, and he hated it when his face got numb.

"It's not cold," Dillon, who was wearing nothing extra to protect himself from the winter chill than a jacket over his normal clothes, felt nothing.

"Again, I point out the fact that I'm from California. You know, Sunny California, the Sunshine State…"

"Damian," Courtney giggled, "Florida is the Sunshine State."

"See? My brain's frozen to the point that I can't even remember which state is the Sunshine state!" Why did he think that his state was the Sunshine State… why couldn't he even remember what nickname his state had? "The point remains the same… I'm from California, the place where we don't get snow, we don't get cold… we don't spend hours looking for one accursed pine tree!"

"Are you done yet?" Dillon waited for the rant to end so that they could begin the search anew.

"Yes…"

"Let's keep looking," Courtney wanted a good tree, a really good tree.

"Can I come with you?" Michael requested, standing next to Damian.

"Are you sure you want to be looking for trees with me, Michael? It could get really ugly, fast." Especially if he decided to start ripping apart trees at random for being inferior beings. The idea was appealing, but if his little brother was standing right next to him, such a display would be ill conceived.

"Maybe I could help you find a good tree," Michael figured that he could help Damian do anything. Whenever Michael was around, good things happened, or at least bad things didn't happen. He thought himself something of a good luck charm, ever ignorant of the steps that were taken to make sure that nothing bad did happen when he was around. "I've got this with me… remember, it's your lucky chain," Michael dug the chain out from under his jacket.

Damian smiled. He hadn't really thought about the chain that much. He didn't even notice if Michael was wearing it or not on a given day, but the fact that Michael still remembered, that Michael still treasured the simple gift that he had been given when he was in the hospital, that was touching. "Of course I remember. I told you to keep it with you… but, maybe it'll help with something."

"Are you sure you don't want it back?" Michael asked. He didn't feel entirely comfortable carrying around such an important momento, especially one that he didn't really understand the importance of, that he couldn't understand the importance of. He knew that it was something that Damian's mother gave him, but he had never met the woman, he didn't know anything else.

"I'm positive I don't want it back, but thank you for the offer, it means a lot to me."

"We come bearing gifts," a voice said from behind the two.

"Great, now my mind is so cold that it's making me think I hear Maxie…"

"Damian, I'm not cold, and I see Maxie," Michael pointed behind his big brother. "She's right there, Georgie is with her."

"You look so cute when you're trying to be a snow bunny," Maxie giggled as she walked closer to the two of them.

"How'd…" Damian looked at Maxie and saw that she was carrying containers of some kind. Steaming containers. "What's in those?"

"Hot Cocoa," Maxie took one of the cups out. "Mike made them just for you guys." She offered the bounty to her boyfriend, "Do you want one? They're warm."

"It was Maxie's idea," Georgie came up from behind. "She figured that you guys would want something warm after you've been out here searching for a tree for so long. Has there been any luck?"

"Unless you count frostbite on my toes as luck… no." For all he knew, his toes could have just fallen off. He couldn't feel them anymore.

"I know a way to warm you up," Maxie smiled devilishly. "But we'll wait until you really need it."

"Did grandpa make a cup of cocoa for me?" Michael wondered, smelling the rich chocolate that emanated from the cups.

"Of course he did, Michael. Mike could never forget you," Maxie grabbed another cup and handed it to the child. "He made sure that it was as hot as it could get, that way it would survive out here, but we've been walking for a few minutes, so it should be at just the right time that you can drink it without burning your lips."

"How'd you know that we were out here?" Damian finally took the cup that was still being offered to him and placed it against his frozen lips. The warm chocolate tingled as the feeling sensation returned to them. He knew one thing, he was going to give his grandfather a many thanks for saving him from an early grave, amid pine trees and quite possibly caribou.

"Dillon called me on the cell phone," Georgie began looking for the boy when she mentioned his name. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Counting the amount of needles on each individual tree, followed by the branches and then getting out the tape measure and making sure that the tree is just the right height…"

"You're not serious," Georgie was amazed at the meticulous planning that appeared to be on her boyfriend's mind.

"Well, he might not be counting the needles, but the other ones are true. I wouldn't put the needle thing ahead of him, though. He's proven to be nothing if not very picky about his Christmas tree."

"It's his first Christmas without Lila," Georgie reminded Damian. "He probably just wants it to be perfect… or as perfect as it can be without his grandmother." It wasn't entirely true. Dillon had spent more Christmases alone with his mother than he had around anyone, herself or Lila included. But the fact was that since he had arrived in Port Charles to stay she had become a part of his Christmas, a part of his life, and she was gone now.

"I didn't look at it like that," Damian felt the small ping of sorrow in his numb body. He had always thought of it as the first Christmas with Jason and Courtney, not the first one without Lila. It made more sense that way. But he was still cold.

There was a loud whistle sound that caught the four people that were bunched together by surprise, shattering the peaceful serenity that surrounded them in the forest of pine. They looked at each other, nodded their heads, and followed the sound.

"Are you sure this is the one?" Courtney asked, having been the whistler in question. She wasn't sure hear voice could carry, but she knew how to make rather loud whistles that would echo, if anything worked, that would have been it.

"Look at it, Courtney," Dillon said, basking in the glow of the perfect tree. "It's almost a sin to cut the tree down, but I want it! I want it so bad!"

"Well, if we're going to cut the tree down, you're going to need to stop hugging it…"

"Right," Dillon let go of the tree, missing the feel of it on his flesh right away. It was a strange relationship, he knew that, but it was special. The tree was special. When the quartet of people got to their location, he pointed at the tree, "Don't you think she's great?"

"How does Dillon know that the tree is a girl?" Michael was puzzled. Did trees have gender?

"He doesn't…" Damian told his brother.

"So what if the tree is a boy?" Michael knew that he wouldn't want to be called a girl, he was a boy. He'd get very upset if someone called him a girl.

"I don't think the tree minds, Michael. If it does, we'll make Dillon apologize for hurting the tree's feelings." Damian looked at Maxie, who was smiling at him. She had told him many times over how impressed she was by the way that he treated his little brother, especially given the age difference and the short amount of time that they had spent together.

"The tree is great," Georgie walked the few feet away from the bunch and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. "But you didn't have to call us. I'm sure Damian is happy that you did, since we brought cocoa, but you didn't need us here…"

"You brought Cocoa?" He saw Courtney walking towards Damian and Maxie, reaching out for a cup of something. "I guess you did…"

"Focus, Dillon, focus," Georgie reprimanded the boy. "This is your tree, you need to cut it down."

"Does everyone agree that the tree is the right tree?" Dillon asked.

He got the group nodding in unison, Damian spoke, "I'd take a palm tree right about now if it got us back to the Penthouse, but, yeah, the tree is great. Cut. Now."

Dillon got to work, bringing out the saw that was concealed safely so that nobody, most of all Michael, would get cut by the sharp edges. He paid no attention to anyone else while he severed the bond between the tree and the soil.

Michael, watching the boy, asked a simple question, "Is he always like this?"

"When he has something that he really wants, yeah, he is," Georgie answered. She knew better than anyone else how Dillon was. They stood, waiting for him to finish cutting down the tree before they would go back to the house and begin decorating.


	13. Don't Look Suspicious

Harbor View Towers-

Max DiMaggio had seen people try to sneak some of the most curious things past him in his time as the guardian of the upper levels of Sonny and Jason's homes. He'd seen people try to get guns past him, bombs, tape recorders. He had thought that he had seen it all, but the look on his face when he saw Dillon and Courtney trying to sneak a Christmas tree, a very large Christmas tree, past him was priceless. Now, it was most certain, he had seen it all.

"Is my husband home?" Courtney, who was carrying the top of the tree asked. She didn't try to make it seem like she wasn't doing something that Jason wouldn't approve of. In fact, the smirk on her face showed that she was having a lot of fun. It was something that Courtney Morgan rarely got to feel.

"Jason hasn't been here for a few hours," Max was curious, but it slowly began to piece together in his mind. "Oh, Courtney. Come on, you're not really…"

"Can we bribe you with Candy Canes?" Dillon, carrying the end of the tree, walked past Max. "We've got the rainbow cherry ones and the peppermint ones. They're festive, sweet, and a good way of not being able to answer questions when cold blue eyed mobsters who don't like Christmas start asking them."

"You want me to lie to Jason Morgan?" Max was stunned. "Can anyone even lie to Jason Morgan? Is that possible?" Jason knew when people were lying to him. He knew when Carly was lying to him. Carly frequently lied to him, but Carly frequently lied to a lot of people, so the point was moot.

"Not so much lie," Dillon assured Max, "just… keep your mouth shut if he wonders what is going on. Come on, Max. You like Christmas, don't you?"

"Well, yeah…"

"And you can't have Christmas without a Christmas tree, can you?" Dillon was slowly going to use his logic to win the battle against tree haters the world over. He'd already beaten down Damian's cynical outlook on the tree, he could beat anyone! "It's like going to the movies without getting popcorn, blasphemy!"

"Popcorn's expensive, and I don't really like the movies…"

"You wound me, Max. You wound me in such harsh ways…" too many people around him didn't like movies. Dillon needed to find a place that worshiped movies as much as he did. That was why he wanted to move to Cannes eventually. They knew how to respect movies, the little ones, too. Not the big international hit ones.

"But I love Christmas, and I always look forward to decorating the tree each year with my family. I won't say anything… but if he finds out, then it's not my fault. I'm not going to put my neck on the line for a pine tree."

"I did," Damian was letting them do the heavy work. It was their idea. He should have just let them find the tree on their own. He would have been nice and cold, and not fighting the fact that he couldn't feel anything. "Nearly froze to death finding that thing."

"You're from California, what'd you expect?" Max asked.

"Finally!" Damian would have hugged Max, if he could get his arms around the man without worrying about them snapping off and breaking into a million pieces on the ground. "Someone who understands my plight!"

"Could someone get the door, please?" Courtney was finding it difficult to not drop the tree and open the door. The tree was large, it needed both hands.

"I'll do it!" Michael ran forward and pushed the door open. "Where are you going to put it?"

"In the corner, by the window," Dillon had planned out everything in his head, as if decorating the tree was like a cinematic experience. "Do you think it's a good place?"

"Well, what if Uncle Jason looks inside the window and sees the tree? Don't you want him to be surprised?"

"Outwitted by an eight year old…" Dillon lowered his head. "Truly, Dillon Quatermaine, you have hit a low point in life."

"Just close the blinds?" Damian suggested. "He can't see through them, and as long as you don't turn the Christmas lights on until he knows what's going on he shouldn't see anything."

"Someone's coming in the elevator again," Max pointed out, seeing the light coming up from the bottom. "You better hurry…"

"Pull, Courtney, pull!" Dillon ordered as he shoved the tree through the open door. "Damian, stall for us if it's Jason!"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Complain about how cold you are… you've been doing it long enough…" Dillon winked as he shut the door with a mule kick.

"Max… if I ever, ever get the bright idea to look for a Christmas tree with Dillon again, do the right thing…"

"Sonny wouldn't like it if I killed his boy…"

"I'll write you a note," Damian waited for the elevator doors to open, expecting the leather jacket to be clearly displayed. But that wasn't what he got. Instead he saw the Jones' sisters. "Maxie? Georgie? What are you doing here?"

"We thought we'd help you decorate the tree," Maxie walked into the hallway. "I wouldn't mind doing that with my boyfriend… does that make me such a bad person?"

"No, it doesn't," Damian was elated to see her. As long as she didn't get into the hyper-holiday spirit like the others had, he'd have someone to keep him anchored. If Maxie started prancing around and stringing up lights and garland and popcorn, he was doomed. "But, I don't want you two to get in trouble with Mac…"

"Mac doesn't know," Georgie smiled mischievously. There was a time when she wouldn't even fathom lying to her father. Now, it was something of a second nature to her. Did that mean that she loved him any less? Of course not. Mac was her father, he would always be her father, but in being her father he did things that she couldn't agree with, like keeping her from seeing her boyfriend in his own house. She had a hard enough time getting Mac to concede brief visits when Dillon was staying at the Quatermaine mansion, now that he was staying with Jason Morgan… well, Mac made sure that she knew that there was nothing that was going to get him to concede a visit. "And as long as he doesn't find out, then everything will be fine."

"And if he does?" Damian could picture the actions that Mac would take if he found out that his darling daughters had decided to spend time in Crime Central. None of the mental images involved a good future for his daughters or their respective boyfriends.

"We'll handle our father," Maxie clutched onto Damian's hand. It was so cold. "Can he really get mad at us for wanting to spend Christmas with the people that we love?"

"If anyone could find a way to get mad at you for that, Maxie, it would be your father."

"Touché," Maxie muttered. She wasn't proud of the way her dad acted. He had ways of doing things that she didn't think were possible, ways of making the most inane logic seem like it was probable.

"Come on, I want to see what the tree looks like in the house!" Georgie knocked on the door.

Michael, being the only one who wasn't hoisting the tree at that moment in time, opened the door at the command of his Aunt Courtney, who said so in a very exhaustive voice. "You're here again?"

"You don't mind, do you?" Georgie asked.

"No, I don't," Michael liked Maxie and Georgie. They were nice to him, they helped him when he needed help, and they were his brother's friends. "It's just, you don't ever come here when you want to see Damian or Dillon, so I didn't know that you would come over."

"It's a special occasion," Georgie smiled and walked in. "And, if anyone asks, you never saw us here…"

"Mum's the word," Courtney said, turning her head and nodding at Georgie. She was glad that Georgie and Maxie had come, it made it better for Dillon and Damian, and that was what she wanted. She wanted things good for them above anyone else.

"Where's Dillon at?" Georgie didn't see him.

"Maybe the tree ate him," Damian said sarcastically. "He probably picked the one tree that was some sort of guardian spirit, and now it's going to take his soul for rupturing it from the earth…"

The girls all shot Damian a very questionable look. It made him blush slightly. Damian coughed and looked at his brother, "From now on, we're not reading any more of those wizards and warriors books that you like so much, okay?"

"I'm right here, Georgie!" Dillon peered his head from behind the tree. "I'm just trying to get this thing in the stand so it doesn't crush any of us." They had stopped off at a store for the essentials, a tree skirt, ornaments, lights and a tree stand. They had them delivered. The place didn't normally do delivery, but when you threw around names like Jason Morgan and a few extra hundred dollars, results were quick to be gotten.

"Here, let me help you," Damian moved away from Maxie, breaking their hold as he walked next to Dillon, grabbing the other end of the bottom of the tree, looking for the slot to put the tree in on the stand. "Move it this way, Dillon. On three. One, two, three…" they lifted in unison, moving the tree until it slid into the slot.

"She's gorgeous…" Georgie said as she kissed Dillon the cheek. "You picked one of the prettiest trees I've ever seen, and it's not even decorated yet."

"Are you just going to do the tree?" Damian was picturing the entire house in Christmas hues. Jason wouldn't like that, but he would tolerate it if he saw how much it meant to his wife and to his cousin. But they could give him some slack and only do a tree, maybe the fireplace for the stockings.

"For now," Courtney looked at the tree and saw the boxes that had been delivered. "Hey, Michael, do you want to help me do the lights?"

"Sure."

"Okay, grab this end and pull, but just go in a straight line until they get untangled," Courtney took the end that was pronged, giving Michael the other. "And, when it's straight, you can start wrapping it around the tree, we'll do a few stands and then we'll start putting the ornaments on."

Maxie put her hand on Damian's back. She loved the boy so much that it was no surprise that she was able to tell that there was something bugging him. It was in the way that he acted. He was trying to hide it, but he wasn't doing so well. She also knew that if she pushed it wouldn't do her any good. She needed to let him come to her. "This is really great, you know. I dreamt about doing this with you from the moment I realized how I felt about you. I hope this is the first of many Christmases for us. Maybe we'll be decorating a tree in our own home in a few years…"

"Maybe," Damian looked at the tree. The Zuniga's never got such a big tree. They couldn't really afford one. They would only do the smallest amount of ornaments and lights. He used to love decorating the Christmas trees, but the magic, just like everything else, seemed to leave. "I'm sure we'll find a way to spend Christmas together every year…"

"Here," Dillon handed Georgie a handful of tinsel, "do what you want with it?"

"Whatever I want?"

"Whatever you want," Dillon nodded. "Go crazy."

"Okay… but remember, you said I could do whatever I wanted with it," Georgie took a handful and threw it at Dillon, the clumps landing in his hair. She laughed, which quickly turned into shorter giggles.

"Now you've done it!" Dillon wrapped his arms around Georgie and lifted her up into the air, "You know how hard it is to get tinsel out of your hair?"

"It's actually pretty easy," Georgie said between laughs, pulling out strands at a time, "See? No trouble at all…"

Damian tried to smile, but he couldn't. There was nothing that he saw that would make him smile. Instead, he turned and went outside.

Maxie saw his frown and followed behind. She was going to break her vow and meddle. She had to know why he was so depressed. "Damian… tell me… please. Just tell me what's wrong…"

"I don't think I can tell you that, Maxie…"

"You can tell me anything."

Damian nodded, looking at her. He knew that he could tell her, but in telling her so he would have to vocally relieve a part of his past that he would sooner forget. But the only way he was going to get over it was to talk about it.


	14. Shattered Dreams and Wishes

Joy- Worry not about the cuteness factor. That chapter was made to be 'cute,' well, it was meant to be more amusing than cute, but I'll settle for cute. I wanted to do something funny, just flat out making the reader smile and possibly laugh funny, because there really won't be that many times in which they (the characters) will get a chance to actually have something happen that doesn't involve… well, drama, really. Besides, Dillon's comedic gold, it'd be blasphemous to not use that.

Case in point… I gave you the 'cute' chapter, so I had to balance it with the not-so-cute one, although the chapter in question was still fun, especially the Max moments. I do love Max, he's underappreciated by the powers that be, yet loved by so many of the viewers (aka: the people who should be getting what they want…). Believe you me, Damian has a damned good reason for not being all festive and cheery, which he's about to get into right about now…

Story-

"I don't want to talk about it…"

"I just told you that you could tell me anything, Damian. I love you, I want to help you." Maxie didn't like that he was being so cold, so aloof, so distant. He wasn't acting like the person that she knew and loved, which only showed how much it was affecting him. There were things that he didn't like to talk about, things that he didn't think he could. He had avoided talking about his mother's passing in detail, but she wouldn't ask more than just what happened. She could see how much it hurt him, and his face was just like the way it was when she found out about his mom. That, to her, didn't make a good sign.

"You cut me off, Maxie," Damian said. The tone in his voice had lowered, it was now near a whisper. "I don't want to talk about it out here, in the open." He looked at Max. He liked Max, trusted him, but this was something private. Sonny may not have had a problem with Max overhearing and knowing some of the personal business that went on in his life, but Damian was not Sonny, a fact that was becoming more and more apparent, for both good and bad reasons. "I'll tell you when we get into the elevator. Come on."

Maxie walked beside him, not trying to show how worried she was. She didn't want him to think that she was judging him, she didn't want to scare him away. He had been there for her… it was time to repay the favor. She hit the button on the elevator, it opened automatically. Stepping in, she once more pressed the button that would lead them down into the bottom levels of the towers, away from some of the prying eyes and ears. "We're alone now. Please, tell me."

"I don't like Christmas…"

"Is that it?" Maxie was stunned, not because he didn't like Christmas, although that was something that she didn't really think anyone could say with a degree of certainty, but she was stunned that he thought that it was so important that it would be something that he needed to say in private.

"Please, Maxie, let me finish," she had cut into his statement before he got a chance to tell her everything again. Normally he wouldn't care, but she was the one who was begging for the revelation that was at the core of his being. "There are a lot of things that I don't like about this holiday. The way that families come together in a way that I could never have growing up, how people would forget everything and be happy for a day because they knew that they were all there with each other is one of them… but it's not the big reason why I don't like it. Even though my Christmases weren't ideal growing up, they were still special. My mom would try her hardest to get me everything that I wanted, even though I didn't want much, because the one thing that I did want was something that I could never get."

"You wanted your father, didn't you?" Maxie asked.

"Yeah, that's what I wanted. I wanted to know that I had both my parents around me. I wanted to feel what I saw all the other people around me feeling. It was hard growing up with a big family because I was the only bastard child. All my cousins… they have both their parents. They'd never tease me for not having a dad, because if our grandparents found out that they were things would get ugly, fast, but that didn't stop them from flaunting the fact that they had a nice complete family unit around them. My grandparents' were accepting of the situation that my mother was put in, the rest of the family was a little less nice about it." He shook his head, there was no reason to hide it anymore. "A lot less nice about it. They would have tossed us both out of their lives if they had the choice, but they didn't."

"So that's why you don't like Christmas?" Maxie felt horrible for the way that his family treated him. If they got married, like Maxie had dreamed of more than a few times and had even planned, she wondered how she could look at them. How she could play nice. Assuming they came. Maybe she could strike them from the guest list.

"Only a small part of the reason. It gets worse, sadly," the elevator finished its descent to the bottom level. The doors opened, the cold air from outside pushing into the small elevator. Damian walked out and stood in the snow, closing his eyes as the small specks of white frozen water brushed against his figure. "With everything that happened, mom still found some way to make me happy at Christmas. She was good at that. She was always good at making me feel better about myself, about the life that I had, telling me that even though it wasn't the life that I wanted it was the life that I had and that I shouldn't throw it away. She was all about believing in the Christmas miracle, and there was always something that she would say was the miracle of that Christmas… but the last Christmas that we had together… I was the one who thought about having a miracle happen. At that time I hadn't abandoned religion and faith, at that time I hadn't decided that I wanted to be a doctor. I was a different person then, Maxie… so naïve."

"You were just a teenager," Maxie attempted to assure him of what was good in life, but she wasn't sure that she could. She didn't know where the story was going, if it still had a place that it needed to go, but already she was holding back the tears of sorrow and grief. A part of her, a small, dark part of her, loathed Damian's mother for leaving her only son. Even though it was a reason why he was in Port Charles, a reason that he was with her, it was still the most painful time of his life and she would give up anything, even her happiness with him, to keep him from going through it. "We all did some things that we're not proud of when we're that age. I did some things that I'm not proud of up until I met you."

"My Christmas wish was simple… I just wanted to spend the day with my mom. I didn't expect her to beat cancer just because of some stupid plea that I made, all I wanted was to spend it with her, to see her smile, hear her laugh. But it didn't happen. I spent all day that Christmas at her bedside, hoping that she would wake up. She didn't. She slept the whole day. She led me to believe that there was something special that would happen on Christmas, and nothing did. I know it's stupid that I'm holding this grudge against a holiday, but ever since then… Christmas just hasn't meant anything to me. It didn't help that she was dead less than a month later. It didn't help that there were days before and days after Christmas where she would spend the whole day sleeping and never wake up, but I thought that something would be different."

"I'm sorry…" Maxie didn't have anything else that she could say. Her boyfriend was doing something that he rarely did. He was showing her a part of him that he tried to keep from getting out. As sad as it was that he had been through that pain, it was also touching because he valued her enough to show her that part. "But you're wrong… it's not stupid. I'd be disappointed too if something like that happened to me on Christmas."

"I'm trying really hard," Damian put his hand out and caught some of the snow, "I always try hard to make the most out of the season. I do my best to make everyone else have a good Christmas, to make sure that I don't ruin their holiday because of my personal pain, but it doesn't help. I'm always finding myself driven back to that point in my life. Nobody knows what happened, Maxie. Not even my Grandparents. I didn't tell them that my mom was asleep the whole time. They always figured that the way I acted around Christmas was because of her being gone, which is true, but it's not the whole reason."

"Why didn't you want to tell them?"

"I didn't want to burden them with another problem caused because of me," Damian let the snow fall onto the ground. "They worked so hard to try and give me a good life, and had to work even harder when mom died. I didn't want to let them down, I didn't want to make them think that they had to do something special for me because of what I lost on that day. I don't like being a charity case… even by the people that I love more than anything else in the world."

"How can I help?" Maxie brushed away some of the hair that was in her face, snowflakes falling harmlessly to the ground.

"By being here with me?" Damian's answer was more like a question, because he didn't know how she could make it better. If she could make it better. "Having you listen to me was helpful. I feel a little better about it now that I've finally told someone. And I'm really glad that I told you before I told anyone else. I'm sure I'll manage to keep myself happy for all of you, and I'm spending my first Christmas with my father. Just… don't hold it against me if I can't put a smile on my face for awhile, okay?"

"I could never hold anything against you," Maxie hugged him tightly. "You've gone through things that I couldn't even begin to understand, Damian, and you've made yourself a stronger person because of it, but you're never going to get over losing your mother, especially the way that you did. She would want you to be happy, though. She wanted you to be happy when she was alive, so we both know that it's what she would want even though she's gone."

"How can I do that… how can I be happy when everything that's going through my mind is my past…"

"By not thinking about it?" Maxie's answer was simple, but she knew that it would be the most difficult thing that he could do. Not thinking about something that happened that was bad was nearly impossible. People forgot the good things in life way before they forgot the bad things.

"I can't make any promises…"

"The only thing I want you to do is try, Damian," Maxie let go, a sad smile on her face, "I wouldn't expect anything more from you. Do you know how you can try?" Maxie waited for a second, getting no response, "You can try by going back upstairs and helping them decorate that tree. The people up there love you, they want you to be happy. If they knew what you were going through they would try and help you, I know they would."

"Don't tell them, please…"

"I won't," Maxie knew that he didn't want that part of himself to be so open. They knew that his mom was gone, but they didn't need to know everything. He was a different person. "But we should go back inside…"

Morgan Household-

Courtney was supervising the project. Michael was having a good time stringing up strand after strand of lights, but she feared that he would eventually get dizzy. She finally decided that there were more than enough, anything else might have caused a fire hazard. "Michael, when you finish with that last strand, please come help me with something…"

"Ow!" Dillon exclaimed, sitting on one of the chairs.

"What happened?" Georgie heard him cry out in pain. She was sitting on the leg of the chair, but her attention had been diverted. She mumbled something about how she couldn't take her eyes off of him without him finding a way to hurt himself.

"Pricked my thumb," Dillon frowned. "You know, I always hated doing this part…"

"I told you to let me do it," Georgie held his hand, "but I'm going to make your hand feel better, and you can't stop me…"

"Why would I?"

"I don't know, why would you?" Georgie knelt down and lightly kissed his thumb. When she was done she yanked the popcorn out of his hands, a few pieces flying out of the bowl onto the ground. "This is one time when I thought the way you use your hands to stylize your hair would help, Dillon, but I can see that stringing popcorn is just something that boys can't do…"

"I resent that comment!" Dillon grinned.

"You haven't done anything to prove it wrong," Georgie kissed him on the lips, "but I'll gladly string up popcorn for you, I don't mind."

Michael made a face when he saw the two of them kissing. He still didn't care for the kissing. He took a seat next to Courtney, "I finished with the lights. Do you think they look good?"

"I think they look great, sweetie," Courtney ran her hand through his hair. "But now that we're done with that part we need to start putting ornaments on the tree. First we need to put the clips on the ornaments. Do you think you can do that for me?"

"Dillon can't," Georgie said, giggling.

"You're destroying my self-esteem!" Dillon mockingly put his face into his hands, "It's not my fault that I was cursed with hands that can't do things that require tenderness! Curse my inefficiencies!" He heard the door knock, "Now there's something that I know I can do with my hands!" Dillon got up, giving Georgie a playful shove that sent her onto the chair, sprawled out. He opened the door, "Where'd you two go?"

"Just to talk…" Damian walked back inside the house. "There was something that I wanted to do with Maxie."

"Did you get it done?" Courtney had noticed the shift in moods by Damian, he had changed them too many times for her to be comfortable, even now he was acting differently than when he left the penthouse. She would have been worried, but he seemed to be doing better.

"Yeah," Maxie looked at Georgie, laughing when she saw that Dillon was eating the pieces of popcorn that she had managed to string up. She pulled at Damian's sleeve and pointed when she got his attention, silently telling him that they were acting how people should have acted around Christmas.

"Did you do the lights, Michael?" Damian took note of her message, and was trying to do the best that he could.

"I did! Do you think they look good?"

"I think they look great," Damian walked over and knelt behind the couch, "I couldn't have done a better job myself."

"Here," Courtney handed Damian a box of ornaments that she had finished while Michael was stringing up the lights. "Why don't you and Maxie put these on the tree?"

Damian waited a moment, knowing that Maxie was looking at him, begging him to take the box, to try her idea. "Sure…" he took the box and stood, walking over to the tree. It was a nice tree. Dillon had picked a good one, despite his many pleas for a tree, any tree, from the forest. As his hand went down for a gold bulb, Maxie's went for the same, their fingers touched both their respective hands and the ornament. Damian and she picked it up together and placed it on one of the branches. When they were finished, Damian gripped onto Maxie's hand even harder and kissed her forehead. "Merry Christmas, Maxie…"


	15. Guilt and Barters

Kelly's-

Despite owning the restaurant in question, Bobbie didn't really spend that much time at the place. It was through that lack of leadership that she thought it was best to hire someone who could give it the guidance that it deserved. She couldn't do it because she wouldn't be able to give up something that was so important to her. As much as she would have hated to admit it to someone, the fact still remained the same: her nursing job was more important to her than owning Kelly's. Never mind the fact that nursing made her more money, it was also a better job for a lot of other reasons. Bobbie, who had started out life with everything going against her, was finally doing something that would help people, help people who were like her when she was younger. She could help the people who Ruby would have hired had she still be around, get them to turn their lives around, be happier. Hopefully they would never have to worry about giving up a baby, only to find that child and have a very rocky relationship. While she and Carly may have patched things up and began a very beautiful and fulfilling relationship there was always going to be the fact that they were two completely different people in many ways.

Mike was someone that she trusted, not just because he was the father of her son-in-law, the grandfather to her own grandsons, but because she saw a lot of herself in Mike. He may have started later in life than she had, but he was trying to turn his life around, was trying to make amends for the mistakes that he had made in the past, that he was still making. But he had showed her that he could be responsible, that he could be someone that people could count on. Ten years ago someone who made that claim would likely get laughed at, but now, things were different. Things were better. Or so she thought, when she got the call to come to Kelly's, she could hear something in Mike's voice that showed that he was worried, or hurt. Maybe Sonny had done something, said something, to open up the old wounds that would always come so close to being healed before one of them ruptured and spilled fresh blood.

She was waiting at her favorite table for Mike to come out from the back. She had finally gotten off her shift and she was really looking forward to getting some well deserved rest, but she wouldn't, couldn't, say no to someone when they needed her, to do so would go against everything that Bobbie Spencer believed in.

Elizabeth was helping a young couple make a choice on what to eat. They were travelers, coming from Maine to visit relatives for Christmas. She loved hearing the stories of the people as they came around. To some they were boring, but they fueled her imagination. Sometimes she would even paint a picture in her head. She missed painting. Kelly's still hadn't picked up to its usual amount of traffic since the medical incident. Hopefully those people weren't starting a rumor that Jeremiah had the seizure because of something that he ate. Food didn't cause seizures, did it?

When they had made their respective orders, Elizabeth walked over and put the order on the stand so that it could be taken care of. It was then that she saw Bobbie. She had been busy listening to the couple that she didn't see her boss walk in. But, with Bobbie there, it gave her someone that she could talk to, someone that she knew. And it never hurt to just say hello. "Did you come here to eat?"

"No, ever since I started coming here so frequently I developed a resistance to the food…"

"Maybe you should say things about that when we're not feeding other people," Elizabeth tilted her head at the couple, who didn't seem to be paying attention, but they could have been playing fools. "How about some coffee then?"

"Got my own cup," Bobbie held up the cup of coffee that Elizabeth had managed to overlook. "Being the owner has some perks, like being able to get my own things." She loved Elizabeth like she loved a daughter. Elizabeth had helped Lucky through some of the hardest parts of his life, for that alone she would always be indebted to Elizabeth. "The extra money that comes from this place doesn't hurt, either. Especially around Christmas, and now that I've got an extra person to buy a present for…"

"Save yourself the lecture and don't ask him what you should buy him," Elizabeth knew that it was Damian that Bobbie was talking about. Nobody else fit the description, unless Bobbie had herself someone special.

"You tried to get some hints, did you?" Bobbie took a sip of her coffee. Black was the only way to go after a stressful shift. It helped snap her back into reality, rather than sugar coat her mind with sweetness.

"He said that I should use my money for better things than buying a present for him. Sometimes I swear he and Ric are so alike… Ric doesn't ever want me to buy him a Christmas present, either…"

"There are those people who deserve a lump of coal…" Bobbie and Elizabeth had one thing that was always going to cause a rift between them, Ric Lansing. Like many other people, Bobbie couldn't see that Ric was trying to be a better person. All she saw was a crazy man who locked her daughter in a room and kept her from her family for months at a time.

"Bobbie… please," Elizabeth had no desire to get into another argument that focused around Ric. She needed to get a stamp that said something like 'give Ric a chance…' or just a tape recorder of her various arguments, played at the right time. It seemed like she was cycling through the excuses as it was. It would have saved her time. "I would have thought you'd come around sooner than you did…"

"Why?" Bobbie was interested in the comment, then she remembered that the seizure patient had been brought in at Kelly's, she was more astonished by the fact that someone was able to help him more than she was interested in where it happened. But she corrected herself, "Because of the man that was brought into the hospital?"

"It was so scary, Bobbie," Elizabeth wouldn't forget the scream of the wife when her husband fell, or the way the plates all crashed to the ground. She wouldn't forget the way that he looked when he was convulsing on the ground.

"Just be glad that you had someone around that knew how to help him," Bobbie had yet to be informed of just who the person that had done the miracle deed was. "He wasn't even a doctor, but he knew how to help. Maybe he was an EMT or something…" she looked up at Elizabeth, who was grinning and holding back laughter, "Elizabeth, I hardly thing that someone having a seizure that could have been fatal is something that we should be laughing at. In fact, I'm certain of it."

"I'm not laughing about that, Bobbie," Elizabeth would never laugh about someone else's misfortune. She would never be that dark, no matter what happened she wanted to help people, not hurt them. "But you really don't know who the person was?"

"Should I?"

"I think you should," Elizabeth got up when the couple waved her over, walking past Bobbie and whispering, "it was Damian…"

"No…" Bobbie was stunned, but she didn't know why she was stunned. It made sense. He was studying to be a doctor, why wouldn't he know how to help someone having a seizure. He knew how to take a bullet out of someone's knee.

Elizabeth sat back down when she finished refilling their drinks and assuring them that their food would be ready in a few minutes. "Yup, it was Damian. We got lucky that he came here…"

"Why was he here?"

"We don't really know yet, he went upstairs. I found him in his old apartment…"

"You don't think that he's trying to move back in, do you?" Bobbie wouldn't say no, the apartment was still being rented to him just in case he needed to get away from his father, but she didn't want Damian and Sonny to go through another relationship issue. She knew how much it tore at Michael, and even how much it tore at Damian. She didn't want that for any of them.

"I don't think so… he went back to the penthouse a little while after everything happened. He would have told me that he and Sonny were having problems, he did the first time that it happened. Maybe he just wanted some time alone…"

"Maybe," Bobbie thought about asking, but she didn't want to intrude. Much like with Elizabeth, Damian knew that he could come to Bobbie, that he didn't have to worry about what she would say. She would help him, it was that simple.

"He was amazing, Bobbie," Elizabeth's eyes beamed with praise. "He knew exactly what to do, and he improvised so quickly."

"He understands that if he hesitates someone can die, Elizabeth. That's something that nobody in our position can ever forget. Someone who went through what he went through to make him take the path that he's taking remembers it even more intensely… but what's important is that he was able to help save the man's life."

"Did they say what was wrong with him?" Elizabeth asked, curious for her own good as well as his. Damian probably wouldn't ask around about the guy, he wasn't that type of person, even if he did want to know. If she knew for him she could tell him eventually.

"He said that he hadn't had a seizure since he was a teenager, and that even then they were rare, but he's been having them since he was a little boy. It was just something that built up after all those years. He never told his wife because he figured that he had outgrown them. She probably wouldn't have known what to do and he would have died if he had one when they were alone."

"Georgie said that he was creating a buzz around him at the hospital. A buzz that you yourself were engaged in at the time…"

"What he did was a terrific thing, Elizabeth. Of course we took notice of it. It's rare when someone who isn't a doctor is responsible for saving a life like that. I'm very proud of him."

"You're not the only one, you should have seen Mike," Elizabeth grinned when she thought about how Mike acted. "About the only thing that he didn't do was bake Damian a cake… speaking of which, you might want to get new pastry devices…"

"What?"

"Nothing," Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Bobbie didn't need to know about that. It wouldn't be something that she wanted to think about.

"Where is Mike, anyway?" Bobbie asked. "He called me over, made it sound like it was something that was urgent… and he's kept me waiting."

"Sorry, Bobbie, but I do have people that I need to cook for," Mike came up and tapped Elizabeth on the shoulder, "Elizabeth, their food is ready, and I think you can take your break after that… not that you didn't get enough of one when we were all alone, but this is paid… even if we do get people, nothing I can't handle."

"Okay…" Elizabeth got up, "I'll talk to you some other time, Bobbie. I still have to give you your gift. Unless you're still here, then we'll talk some more…" She got the people their food and told them that they just needed to ask for Mike's help if they needed something.

"Bobbie… thanks for coming."

"You sounded like you needed me for something, Mike. Why wouldn't I come? This is my business, I try and take care of it, and you're my friend, I try and take care of you…"

"I don't think that I should be working here anymore…"

"Mike!" Bobbie exclaimed, stunned. "You're doing so well for this place, I couldn't do it without you. I don't want you to go!"

"I don't want to go, Bobbie, but I think it might be the best thing for me to do… given the circumstances."

"What? Does Sonny not want you working here or something? Mike, I know that you work in overdrive trying to make up for what you did in the past, but you cannot let the man run your life. You're an adult, you're free to make your own choices."

"Sonny doesn't have anything to do with this… well, he has something to do with it, but it's a very abstract reason." Mike didn't like the idea of leaving, he hated it, but he saw something in Damian's eyes, hurt. Hurt that he had caused. "Bobbie… whenever I get around Ric Lansing something inside of me snaps, and I can't control myself. Even when I should, something comes out of my mouth that is just so mean… and I like that about myself, but I know that there are people around me who don't."

"You mean Elizabeth?" Bobbie could see Elizabeth lecturing Mike about being nice to Ric… and nothing that anyone could do would stop Elizabeth from defending the man that she loved.

"No, actually, it's not Elizabeth," Mike wished that it was Elizabeth. Even though he cared about her it wasn't the same if he hurt her feelings. He wasn't supposed to keep her happy. "It's Damian. The way that he looks at me when I say something to Ric… I know that he wants me to stop doing it, and I know that no matter what, I can't. Because I can't, I know that each time that they're around, together, I'm going to hurt Damian because of my grudge against Ric. And Ric comes around here a lot because of Elizabeth, and Damian comes around here a lot because of his friends, so they're here at the same time more than I'd care to see…"

"Mike, he understands that you have your opinion about Ric, he understands why you don't like him. It hurts him, but he doesn't hold it against you. Please… just stay."

Mike was quiet, but he looked at Bobbie and saw that she was being genuine and truthful. He didn't want to let another person down. "Okay… I'll see what happens."


	16. Bright Lights

Joy- The answer to your question, dear lady, is simple: I got skills. Or, to put a more urban spin on it: I's gots mad skillz, yo. Okay, enough of that. See, though, I told you he had a good reason for being so apathetic towards Christmas. But at least he's not out to destroy the holiday. Give him credit for that. As for Jason's reaction… well, you ask for things and they come for you. I provide, yes I do.

Story-

Evening, Morgan Household-

They hadn't expected Jason to be home in the evening, it wasn't like he had a nine to five job. If anything, Jason Morgan had a nine in the evening to five in the morning job, with no lunch, no overtime, and always being on call at a moment's notice. It wasn't the easiest job, but it was the job that Jason wanted, the job that Jason was good at. A part of Courtney would always want him to just be the type of person that he was right after the accident, working on cars. She respected his wishes, even when they went against everything that she believed in. Marriage was all about compromise, and it wasn't like Jason was asking her to go out and help him, although if he did, she would.

Maxie and Georgie had gone shortly after they finished trimming the tree. They had cut it close, as Maxie's call to Damian when she did get home showed, he was only minutes behind them. He asked no questions, which was odd. Mac always asked questions, the fact that he didn't made them all nervous, but that was a problem that would be dealt with at another time and date. While he wasn't all for Christmas, complete with Santa hats and caroling around the neighborhood, Damian did enjoy decorating the tree with his girlfriend, his family and his friends. It was the first time that he had laughed while decorating a tree in any number of years, and the tree was huge.

Where there was once nothing more than a simple pine tree, now there was a tree that was more decorated than anything else. Were it not for the smell of pine that filled the penthouse, one wouldn't be able to guess that it was, in fact, a pine tree. The lights, which were turned off in an effort to keep Jason from thinking that anything was amiss, were bright and multicolored when lit. Greens, reds, blues, yellows, all blending together to form a tapestry in a small space. The ornaments glistened in the pale moonlight, shining softly.

Dillon was elated. The tree was almost everything that he needed. There were a few things that were missing. Some of them were things that he could have, others were not, and he accepted that there were things that he couldn't get in life. Quatermaine or not, everyone had their limits.

Damian walked in. After a short rant by Courtney about how he didn't need to knock since he was family and an instance that she would tell him each time he did knock until he stopped knocking. He was a quick learner, that's why he made the grades. "It's just me…"

Although hiding wasn't exactly an option, Dillon and Courtney tried their hardest to stay out of sight just in case Jason did return, but when they heard Damian's voice they both came out of their hiding spot, Dillon from underneath the pool table, and Courtney from behind the corner on the stairs.

"Where is that man?" Courtney was impatient, something that wasn't a common feeling for her. She was usually better, but she had never had a tree in her home, in their home. She wanted to see how Jason would react.

"I was going to ask dad, but I didn't want him to get suspicious and give away the surprise if Uncle Jason stopped over there first, which he might," Jason would always report to Sonny if there was something to report, and there frequently was in their business. "Besides, he was with Morgan…"

"Did Michael wake up while you walked him to his bed?" Courtney was sad that he couldn't make it, staying up until Jason got home, but he was a little boy, he didn't have the stamina to carry on the whole night, and Courtney wasn't going to hype him up on sugar to keep him up, because then he wouldn't sleep even after everyone else did, something that Carly certainly wouldn't appreciate.

"No, he was fine," Damian closed the door behind him. He walked over and grabbed the end of the electrical wire that would turn the tree on. "Hey, Dillon, why don't you hide near a plug, that way you can put it in when Uncle Jason gets here and the tree can light up right away…"

"That's a good idea," Dillon did like it. Jason would get assaulted by a barrage of colors, pretty colors. Dillon grabbed the wire and scurried towards a plug. Now all that was left was the waiting.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity and may have well been, the door opened. Out of the corner of their eyes, each of three respective members of the decorating team looked at each other.

Jason had spoken to Max before he walked into his home. It was a slow night. There were no shipments coming in, and with the combined menaces of Faith and Lorenzo both out of his hair, Jason could relax, but only a little. He had relaxed after he got rid of Faith with Sonny and then he ended up getting shot. His leg would still sometimes give him the slightest hint of his error, and in that moment he would always be thankful to Damian for helping him, keeping it from being a bigger problem than it was. But, even though he couldn't put his finger on it, he knew that there was something that was off about Max. It was slight, but Jason was the type of man who knew how important it was to pick up on even the smallest things. A tiny error and everything could be over. The people that he loved could be hurt.

As he shut the door, he gazed around. Something was wrong. He hated when he felt that something was wrong. Instinctively, Jason went for his gun, silently holding a firm grip on it. If there was someone in his home, someone who had hurt Courtney… or even Dillon, they were going to pay.

Dillon waited a few seconds, hearing Jason's quiet footsteps, waiting for him to get close enough. He counted scant seconds more before plugging the tree in, watching as the tree illuminated in the room.

Jason found himself taken by surprise when the tree came on. His head jerked back, but he didn't feel that there was any danger around him or anyone else, so he put the gun down. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Surprise!" Dillon and Courtney yelled. Damian, not one to be overly excited, just waited for the probable fallout. He hoped that Jason liked the tree, but he wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that a miracle would happen. Not again.

Jason's eyes were fixated on the tree. There was a tree. A Christmas tree. In his house. Somehow those things didn't mesh well.

Courtney came down the stairs and turned the light on. She planted a soft kiss on her husband's cheek. "Merry Christmas, Jason…"

"Courtney… why'd you do this? We've never had a tree before?"

"And you didn't think that there was something missing from the house during Christmas, Jason?" Dillon walked out from behind the tree. "Come on, this will all be gone eventually. It's not going to stay in the house forever."

"You had something to do with this, didn't you?" Jason's tone of voice didn't show that he was in support of the tree idea. But it sounded like it often did, so that meant that maybe, just maybe, he didn't hate the idea.

"Or everything…" Dillon backed away. "Should I pack my bags? Evicted for being in the holiday spirit? That's got to be the worst reason to get kicked out of a house that I've ever seen…"

"Don't be ridiculous, Dillon," Courtney tugged on Jason's arm. "I'm sure Jason doesn't want you to leave… I don't. Besides, he told me about the tree, Jason, and I thought it was a really good idea. I always liked having a Christmas tree in the house during the season. Look how beautiful it looks… Michael helped string up the lights." She added that part for the weight that it brought. Did that make her manipulative? Only slightly. She had been hanging around Carly too long.

"We even managed to sneak Maxie and Georgie in here to help decorate," Dillon boasted. "Don't make the one time I'll probably ever have my girlfriend in this house be a waste of time…"

"You let the commissioner's daughters come into the house?" Jason didn't like the idea of that. What if they were silently looking for something to use against him and Sonny. During the ruckus that was caused by decorating a tree it would be impossible for them to keep their eyes on the girls the whole time. "Did you make sure they didn't take anything…"

"They wouldn't do that, Jason," Courtney sighed. "If you would just trust people easier… this would be better. Maxie and Georgie don't want to hurt you or Sonny or anyone else. They're good girls."

"If it helps any, Uncle Jason, I didn't see them leave with anything either," Damian didn't like the accusation that was made against his girlfriend, and he knew that Dillon felt the same way. Just like he was put in a position because he was Sonny Corinthos' son, Maxie and Georgie found themselves being treated differently because they were Mac Scorpio's daughters.

"And how much of this did you do?"

"I did the complaining," Damian noted. "A lot of it. You know, they had me standing out in the snow for at least an hour while we looked for the tree. Are you really going to throw out this tree? The fruit of my prolonged pain? I sacrificed the comfort and temporary feel of my legs for this… if you toss it out, that'll hurt. Oh, I helped put the ornaments on, too, but I can assure you that it was after a hefty amount of protesting…"

"He wouldn't shut up," Dillon smirked.

"At least I don't need my girlfriend's help to string popcorn…" Damian countered snidely, even though it was all in good humor.

"Do you at least think its pretty, Jason?" Courtney let the boys squabble. It was amusing, too.

"I think it's a nice tree, Courtney," Jason admitted. It was a nice tree. The ornaments were placed in a nice orderly fashion, the lights were all lit. It looked like Sonny's tree. Maybe even better. "If Sonny sees this tree… he'll try to outdo it."

"We didn't make this tree for dad," Damian wasn't sure he liked that idea. If his father wanted him to go look for a tree did that mean that he would be out in the cold for an even longer period of time? If so, he was wearing more pairs of socks. "We made it for you…"

"Please don't make us take it out, Jason," Dillon pleaded. "It can be my Christmas present… and my birthday present."

"I don't even know when your birthday is…" Jason said bluntly. He didn't.

"Well I won't even mention my birthday when it comes up, because I'll know that this counted for the present. Promise!"

"Dillon…"

Before Jason could say anything, Courtney also gave him a look with pleading eyes. "You haven't even thought about it, Jason. Nobody is going to think less of you because you have a Christmas tree in the house. If anything, they'll think that you're finally having some fun…"

"That's how they'll think less of me," Jason reasoned. He found his eyes diverted towards Damian, "You're the only part of this trio that hasn't pleaded even more for me to keep the tree…"

"I don't live here," Damian leaned against the back of the couch, "and I've said my piece. I think you could stand to keep it, though. Courtney, Dillon and Michael all wanted to do this for you, to make you feel special. Would it be right of you to just step on that simple wi… desire?" He was going to say 'wish' but he stopped himself. The pain was still too new, too much.

As always, Damian tried to reason with people, appealing to a part of themselves that they might not have shown very often, if at all. Jason looked at his wife and his cousin and thought of Michael. Damian was right. If they wanted him to have something… if they wanted him to have a Christmas tree, if they cared enough that they went out and got one, then why would he deny them? "It's out on New Years Day…" Jason couldn't let them think that he was all for the idea.

"Deal!" Dillon was shining with joy. "There's only one thing that needs to be done…"

"Don't say a picture…" Jason wasn't willing to take a picture in front of the tree. If they wanted that they would have to try even harder to sway him. There were some things that even he wouldn't concede to.

"Not a picture," Dillon walked over to the table and picked up a small box. "Open it…"

Jason cautiously looked at the box before prying it open. "It's a star…" he took the star out of the box and examined it. It was clear.

"Fiber-optic star," Dillon corrected Jason. "The only thing that we didn't put on the tree. This is as much your tree as anyone else's, Jason. We felt that maybe, just maybe, you'd like to put the star on the tree. Doesn't hurt that you're taller than me and Courtney…"

"I guess I can put it on, if you want me to do it so much…" Jason relented and stepped towards the tree, putting the star on the tip of the tree, plugging it into one of the ports that was near the top of the tree, connected to the rest of the lights. It sparked to life, shining in multiple hues, changing every few seconds.

"Perfect," Courtney snuggled next to her husband.

"Thank you… all of you," Jason meant his thanks. He might not have been all for the idea at first, but, maybe because of the smell of pine, it was slowly starting to grow on him. Maybe he'd let it stay for a little while longer than a week and a half.


	17. Hate

Angle445- Thanks for the review! I always love it when new people review, not that I don't love it when longtime readers review. But, anyway, yeah… glad you liked the Journey part, there's another part coming up sometime later, maybe by Sunday, but after that I haven't written anything that is specifically Journey… or has either character in the couple on the page, really. That's something that I've found myself needing to work on, before, with Shadows, I was able to branch out more, but here I'm more contained to focusing on Damian than before, which isn't something that I really want. Of course, I intend on changing this, once the Christmas stuff is over and we get onto the actual drama there'll be more focus on other people, but for now, bear with me.

Joy- We're seeing the big softy of Jason Morgan on the show, too. It's a fascinating thing. We even got to see him shirtless… which is something I've never seen since I started watching, but have heard of. Now I can be content… I have to put up with all this NEm crap, but subtext of JaSam sex makes it better. But, back to the story, because the show has next to no impact on the story, since I want it to be that way. Yes, Jason loves the family, will do much for them, but he won't take pictures. Jason has his limits.

Story-

Morning, Corinthos Household-

As always, his dreams were haunting him, refusing to let him go, forcing him to remember parts of his life that he would rather forget. Before it was just her face. His mother's cold, lifeless face as she left him forever. Now it was less her face, and more of Lorenzo's face as the blood flowed from the chest wound, watching as his eyes glazed over and he slowly started to cough up blood. Then, he would see himself. He would see the look on his own face. The look of satisfaction, the look of pleasure. The look that scared him intensely.

"No!" Damian's eyes jarred themselves open as the memories threatened to take over his sanity, as they often did. Only when he was forced to wake up did he actually wake up, as if a part of his mind wanted to recall that part of his life. No matter how many times he told himself that he wanted to forget, maybe he was just lying to himself. Maybe he wanted to keep that memory fresh in his mind. Why else would he dream about it, night after night?

He wiped away the cold sweat from his forehead, but he could still feel it running down his arms. He curled up against the headboard, clutching the blanket against his chest as if it was some sort of security measure. He knew that it wasn't going to help, but he needed something, anything, to make him feel a little bit safer, if a piece of cloth worked in his favor, then so be it. Looking out the window, Damian could see that it had yet to stop snowing. What was once a weather occurrence that was filled with childlike curiosity had quickly become part of the daily tedium. He still liked the snow, but he was wondering when it would end, if it ever would. At least the sun still shined in California.

Staring at the numbers on his alarm clock as they blinked at him, taunting him with the time, Damian groaned and threw the covers off, the change in temperature quickly cooling the sweat that was stuck on his skin. He realized that ran even deeper down his body, not resting at his arms, his body was drenched in a light coating of the sweat of pain and anguish. He was not willing to risk going back to sleep. Damian was usually the type of person who could go back to sleep without much effort, but that had changed, with one fatal bullet.

Although he called the place his home, there was still something that was foreboding about the penthouse. Maybe it was because it was such a huge change from his home in Los Angeles, the place that he had spent his entire life living in until he moved away. He couldn't really be expected to just adjust to such a drastic change in scenery over the course of a few months, could he? Maybe he would never adjust, but at least he didn't hate the house.

Walking out of the bathroom, dressed and clean, the night's horrors wiped from his body, but not his mind, Damian realized that he didn't have any plans for the day. Break was hard on him. He didn't have to worry about going to school, he didn't have to worry about doing his homework, or studying for the next exam. He could relax, and relaxing was never something that he was particularly good at. Perhaps it was because he had never really given himself time to try it. There always seemed to be something that kept him from the bliss of relaxation, and it only got worse after he moved to Port Charles. If he wasn't worrying about meeting his father he was worrying about battling the moral ambiguity that Sonny lived by. If it wasn't that, it was Carly, or Michael, or Dillon, or Maxie… or anyone in between, and there was always the excess amount of time that he spent worrying about himself. He just wanted some calm in his life, and that seemed to be the farthest from attainable.

Sonny heard one of the doors open as he went through the records that had been presented to him at his request. It may have been early in the morning in Port Charles, but it was evening in some parts of the world where Sonny did business, and they wanted answers. They were impatient creatures, but he was the same way when he needed something to get done, that was the nature of the beast. He wasn't expecting anyone to be up, though. He had long since grown accustomed to sitting around the house alone for a few hours in the early morning. Even though he would likely never admit it, the truth was that he had started to like the time where he could be alone and reflect on both his triumphs and his tragedies.

As was often the case with Sonny, his children were the first people on his mind. The children that were alive and the children that weren't. He thought of the baby, the baby that he thought was his first child, and the way that the poor child and Lily were killed, by her own father, no less. He thought of the child that he and Carly lost, another son… they would have named him Morgan if he had been born. What would they have named Morgan if the first baby would have survived?

Sonny knew that brooding over the past, over that which couldn't be changed, did no good for anyone, but he couldn't help it. He only wished that all of his children, all of those that were conceived by him and even the one who wasn't, would have had their fair chance at life. He knew that he was a danger to his boys, no matter how much he tried to protect them there was always the unknown element. Would they go to Michael's school? Would they wait till Leticia took Morgan out to the park? Would they follow Damian while he was out with Maxie and take him out when he was alone? Each of his living children had almost been lost to him at one point or the other, and he never wanted to worry about losing them again, but he knew that with his life, with his choices, that wasn't going to be possible.

"Do you ever wish that things could have been different, dad?" Damian asked, not even saying hello to his father. It may have been rude, crass, but it was something that was bugging him and he wanted to get it out of his mind as fast as possible, for the sake of his sanity, among other things.

"There are always things that I wished I could have done differently, Damian," Sonny responded the only way he knew how to respond when it came to his oldest son, honestly. He had lied to Damian once, and it took a lot of work on both their parts to even find a way to function as a unit after that. Sonny wasn't going to risk alienating the boy again, not when they were slowly building a stronger relationship with each passing day. "There are things that everyone wishes they could have done differently, but it doesn't matter, does it? No matter what we wish, no matter how hard we try, we can't erase the past. Our mistakes keep us grounded, keep us from making the same mistakes again…"

"At least in theory," Damian had made some mistakes multiple times in his life, depending on his mother too much even after she was gone. But Sonny was right, making mistakes was the only way that a person could grow as a person. If it weren't for the mistakes that were made in the past they would be made in the present and they could be worse. Damian wanted to know if Sonny regretted his relationship with Ric, but he knew that it wasn't his place. What was between his father and his uncle was something that only they understood, only they could hope to solve. Damian could be the glue that held them together, if extremely loosely, but he couldn't bring them together any more than he already had.

"Why'd you ask?" Sonny wondered. It wasn't an odd question, especially from him. He was too smart for his own good, too honest, too inquisitive. They were all good traits in a lot of ways, but they were also traits that could get him in trouble.

"Because I needed some advice," Damian walked over and poured a glass of water. "And when I need some advice… guess what, I turn to my father. Amazing concept, isn't it?"

"I would think that you would be the last person to turn to me for any advice, given what I do, given what you do… how those two positions clash against each other, a lot."

"Conflicting sides can often find peace by working with the opposition, dad," Damian sat down. "That's often the easiest way that a problem is resolved, by talking to someone who you wouldn't normally talk to. It's been like that for a long time, finding common ground to base a somewhat healthy relationship on. We did it that way… we built up a relationship as father and son because of the way that we felt about Michael and Morgan."

"Are you saying that if I didn't have any other children we wouldn't be where we are right now?" Sonny didn't think about the chance that without younger children, his oldest child wouldn't see any reason to be around his own father. The realization wasn't one that he enjoyed making.

"I don't know," Damian was honest. "I want to say that we would find our way to one another regardless of if you had any children, because I'd still want a relationship with you, dad. I'd still want to be your son, I'd still want that one thing that had been denied to me for twenty years of my life… but it would probably be harder to reach that goal…"

"I want to know about you, son…"

"You know who I am, dad…"

"No, I don't," Sonny shook his head. "I know your name, I know your grandparents, I know your mother. I know the most basic things about you, Damian, but I don't know who you are inside… not really. I don't know what your favorite color is, what type of food you like… I don't know about any accidents that you had when you were a little boy, if you're allergic to anything. All these things that I know about Michael and Morgan I want to know about you."

"I'm right here, dad. If you have questions that you want to ask me, feel free. I'm not going anywhere…"

"Do you have a nickname?"

"No… well, mom used to call me 'baby.' But I think that I'm a little old for that now… and she's the only one who would get to call me that, because I'd always be her baby…" he threw his head back, "Sorry, that sounded insensitive. I'm not jealous because you have more children from someone that isn't my mother, dad. I know that you wouldn't have even had me if it weren't for the circumstances that came around when you met her, and I'm glad that I'm not your only child… because it's really not that much fun."

"Did you hate me… growing up?" Sonny's question could have had a painful response. Maybe he had asked the question before, and even though he would find himself getting an answer in a matter of moments he would probably ask over and over again until he died.

"It's funny… she wouldn't let me hate you," Damian remembered a time in his life when he was much younger, much more innocent, less sure of himself as a person. "I remember once, I think it was on one of my birthdays, or maybe after I graduated from junior high… something like that… anyway, I remember that I hated my father for not being there with me on that day. I told her how much I hated my father, and she looked at me with so much sadness in her eyes. You know what she said? She told me 'your father would love you if he had the chance, nothing would keep him from being with you if he knew.' And I believed her. You made an impression on my mother when you had sex with her, dad…"

"We didn't talk," Sonny remembered the moments where he and Ana conceived the child that would eventually become Damian. "She was crying the whole time, and I was doing my best not to look at her, not to see her eyes and know that I was doing something that went against something that I believed in…" Sonny was silent before he continued, "How could she have seen that I would have been there for you?"

"Maybe the fact that you didn't look at her, that you didn't see her as just part of your job, or worse, as a conquest, showed the part of you that nurtures the people that you care about," Damian couldn't dissect his mother's logic, but he could get ideas as to why things were the way that they were. "Besides, she was right, wasn't she? You know that you would have been there for me if you knew. We both do. So, after that… no, I didn't hate you, and when I thought that I might have, I remembered when she told me that, and it helped."

"Why didn't she ever try to look for me?"

"That's not a question that I can answer, dad," Damian wished he had an answer, but the truth was that he didn't. "Nobody can answer that but her, and she's gone, so we'll never know. Maybe it was my grandparents. My grandfather more than likely if that's the case. He probably didn't want you around her because of what you are."

"I can't say that I blame him."

"I'm sorry that he can't see beyond what you do, dad," Damian knew that Elias and Sonny would never be close, they'd never be friends, but he, ever the one for unity, didn't want that. "Sometimes he can be stubborn as a mule. Guess you're not the only one that I get that trait from."

"Last question…"

"Shoot."

Sonny sat in the chair, "What do you want for Christmas? Anything at all, you name it, it's done. I don't care how much it costs, I've got to make up for twenty missed Christmases, after all…"

"Despite being a child of the 1980s, I won't collect on what is overdue, nor will I charge you any interest," Damian's love couldn't be bought, nor could his happiness. Sonny knew that, but he had to get his kid something for Christmas, not doing it would be mean, and Damian would be hurt by the lack of something under that tree, even if it was a simple trinket. "Here's the thing about presents, dad… they should come from the heart first and foremost. You know, I could ask for things that you could get me and that I would really like… but I'm not going to do that, because I don't believe in doing that. Whatever you get me will be fine… because I'll know that you put some thought into it."

"You love making this hard on me, don't you?"

Damian couldn't keep the smirk from showing on his face, "Look at it this way… I'm collecting on all the hell I would have put you through as a teenager… on that, yes, I will tack on some interest. Don't think about it, just let it come to you."

Sonny let the ideas come to him, one of them in particular seemed like a very good idea, but would he have the gall to do it? Maybe he would… hopefully he would.


	18. Unlikely Guest

Scorpio Household-

Maxie Jones looked at herself in the mirror, slowly stroking the brush through her long hair. She had pondered many times about cutting it. People just didn't understand the hassle that came with having long hair. Yes, it looked good, but that didn't mean that it was easy to maintain or deal with. If anything it was a huge pain… with the upkeep and the stylizing. Sometimes she would tell herself that it wasn't worth it, but it was a part of her. Georgie was the one with the shorter hair. That didn't mean that Georgie had a claim on the style, far from it, but Maxie had thought about what she would look like with Georgie's style and it didn't mesh. Long hair was her claim. Besides, she loved the way it felt when her boyfriend stroked her golden tresses in that soft way. The way that Kyle never did. He never paid any attention to anything about her, short of her face, her position at the hospital, and the sex.

Damian was different from any boy that she had ever fallen in love with. Unlike Lucky, he was attainable. Unlike Kyle, he was kind. Unlike Lucas, or so Georgie would have believed… he wasn't some sort of adopted cousin. That explained why she cared about him as much as she did. He was like something that she had never had before. Something that she didn't know she needed until she got it and saw just how much it changed her life. Without him… she didn't even want to know what she would have been doing without his love to anchor her. If she wouldn't have met him she would have imploded when Kyle died. She wouldn't have been able to lose him. It would have been impossible for her to cope.

Maxie looked in the corner of her mirror. It was where she often kept pictures. Mementos of the people that she loved. There were pictures of her and a few of her friends from high school, the ones who had managed to get out of Port Charles after graduating, the ones who hadn't made the mistakes that she did. There were pictures of Georgie, both alone and with Dillon. There were pictures of Mac. But there were no pictures of Damian. The two of them had never taken a picture together. She hadn't realized it until that moment, looking at everything that was right in front of her face, noticing that something was missing and knowing what it was.

They didn't have a relationship that she would have pictured herself having with someone. Anyone. They talked more than they did anything else. Damian was a virgin. He wanted to stay a virgin until he got married. It was a decision that Maxie respected, but struggled to understand. Even though he had the religious background that he had thrown away, parts of those teachings were still embedded in his mind and in his sense of morality, that was one of them. She didn't have the luxury of being brought up in a religious household, or maybe it wasn't a luxury. The faith had seemed to give Damian a blow that he had yet to recover from, so maybe it was better off that she didn't have that backing, the only person who failed Maxie was Maxie.

Maxie heard a knock at her door. There were only two people that it could have been, and she didn't mind seeing either her father or her little sister at that moment in time. Still staring at herself in the mirror, she called out to the person, whoever it may have been, "Come in!"

Mac walked in at the command of his daughter. She was an adult now, but she still lived at home, and Mac wouldn't want it any other way. He didn't think that Maxie was strong enough to be on her own. It wasn't that she wasn't strong, but she was only just now starting to realize her potential, realize the person that she was deep inside. Through all the layers of ignorance and conformity, she had found her true core. She needed to be sheltered, nurtured, given time to get comfortable with herself once again. Damian helped with that, Mac would be a fool to not admit such things, but that didn't mean that he was willing to let his daughter live with Sonny Corinthos. Thankfully, Mac was almost assured of the fact that Sonny wouldn't be in favor of the idea.

Mac sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the headboard. Maxie had managed to make her bed, and her stuffed animals were still there. In many ways, she was still the child that Mac had taken in and loved in all the ways that a father should love a child. As Georgie had told him before, he may not have been their father, but he was their dad. "You're up early… and on a vacation day. Are you feeling sick?"

Maxie blushed softly, "Come on, dad, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm in college now. I know how much it pays to get up early and go to every class, all that good stuff. Besides, if I let myself fall back into the habit of sleeping in, I might enjoy it too much. I want to make this work, dad. I don't want to waste your money, I don't want to waste my time. I want to finally make up for all the mistakes that I made when I was a teenager… when I was in high school. That's the best way that I can think of repaying you for everything."

"Did you rehearse that speech?"

She opened her mouth and made a sound of mock hurt, "Dad! That came from the heart. Honestly!"

"I know it did," Mac stood and walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek, "and I don't think I've ever been prouder of you than I am at this moment."

"Does this mean I get an extra special Christmas present?" Maxie looked up at him.

"And then you go and say something like that, ruining the beautiful moment," Mac took a chunk of Maxie's hair and tossed it over her head, spilling it in front of her face. "You know how to do that better than any other person I've ever met, Maxie."

"It's a gift," Maxie laughed, brushing the hair out of her face.

Mac's face changed expressions as he looked at Maxie once more, perhaps looking at her for the first time, the first true time. "You remind me a lot of your mother… you look more like her each time I look at you."

Maxie's own face also changed. The smile faded, leaving a blankness that threatened to swallow her whole. She didn't want to be compared to Felicia. She didn't want to have the same expectations that were put on her mother put on her. She didn't want to be the type of woman who left her children for years at a time, always coming back with promises that couldn't hope to be fulfilled. If she looked like Felicia in any way, shape or form then she wanted to do everything that she could to make sure that she changed the way that she did look.

Mac knew that he had hit a nerve. Mentally he cursed himself for saying such a thing, knowing full well the effect that it would have had on Maxie. Georgie may have taken it as a compliment, but that was a long shot. Maxie didn't take it as a compliment in the least. She took it as an insult. "Sweetie, I'm sorry. Just because you look like your mother doesn't mean that you're going to do the same things that she did. It doesn't mean that you're going to make the same mistakes that she made. You're your own person, but you have a small piece of her inside of you."

"Then get me something so that I can dig out whatever part of her that's inside of me," Maxie commented, filled with an intense bitterness. "I don't want to have anything to do with that woman, dad."

"Maxie…"

"Don't," she got up and grabbed her bathrobe, "I don't want to hear it. I'm going to take a shower."

"Maxie! Please…" Mac's pleas fell on deaf ears as all he heard was the echo of the door being slammed in the hallway, slammed with a ferocity of anger and hurt. Sighing, Mac looked at the pictures that were aligned on the mirror. None of them had her mother. Not even when Maxie was little, when Felicia was around. The hurt of abandonment ran deep inside Maxie, and it was something that wasn't going to get fixed overnight. It was something that would probably never get fixed at all.

Before Mac could even bang on the door in hopes that Maxie wasn't actually taking a shower, that she was just sitting on the toilet, letting the water run, giving the illusion that she was taking a shower, he heard a knock on the door. Georgie was likely still asleep, or hiding in her room for fear of being caught in the fallout. Unsure of how much good he could do, if any, to Maxie's case by trying to speak with her, Mac begrudgingly went for the door, walking down the steps and hoping that it wasn't someone trying to sell him collectable plates.

When he opened the door he saw that it wasn't a solicitor, but it wasn't someone that he really wanted to see either. Then he thought about it, maybe it was a good thing that he was there. But he couldn't let Damian think that, it wouldn't be part of his role. "What are you doing here?"

"I went for a morning walk and happened to come around here… thought I'd see if Maxie wanted to spend some time with me."

"The penthouses are on the other side of town…"

"It's a small town, and it was a long walk," Damian had long since told everyone that saw him and Mac together that he wasn't going to back down just because of his reputation, his family. He loved Maxie and would die to protect her, he had almost died protecting her before. He knew the risk that he put her in, she knew the risk that she was in, and they accepted that. "Shouldn't you be trying to accuse my father or my uncle of doing something illegal?"

"They've managed to cover their tracks better than usual lately," Mac countered. "But, knowing them, they're probably doing something that would get them in trouble."

"Dad's making Michael breakfast right now. Watch out, Commissioner, that's a crime in the making…"

"Can I be frank with you?" Mac asked.

"I wasn't aware there was anything else that you could be when it came to me, Mac. It's not like you try and sugar coat the way that you feel about me." Damian wouldn't turn around. If he managed to fight Mac down then it was a victory in his favor, and one that could show Georgie and Dillon that they didn't always need to be cautious around him. Yes, Mac was no longer as strict in either relationship, but he wouldn't accept either of his daughter's beaus, he was just that type of person. Baby steps needed to be taken, and baby steps were being taken by Damian.

"If you weren't who you were, if you were someone else, if you had any other last name… I'd welcome you with open arms," it wasn't something Mac liked to admit, but Damian was good for Maxie. Perhaps if he was Damian Serrano… or anything else. Tack on the Corinthos name and it was just like he was wearing a target all over his body.

"Careful, Mac, you're getting close to paying me a compliment," Damian knew that he should have called Maxie first. That was why he had a cell phone, so that he could get in contact with people when he needed to talk to them.

"You're a good person…"

"That is a compliment…"

"But you're also a liability."

"And there's the typical counter-insult," Damian knew that if he and Mac weren't fighting each other so often they could and would get along. But he wasn't the one who wouldn't drop the situation. If Mac wanted peace, all Mac had to do was ask and it would be his.

"However," Mac was growing weary of the banter, "you are the one that Maxie loves, and you love my daughter."

"I do…"

"And you were able to help her when nobody else could, because you understand her better than us…"

"No, I don't," Damian shook his head. "She didn't feel that she could talk to you people because she knew that you understood her better than me. I was able to help her that night because I was able to give her the objectivity that she needs. Mac, she's more comfortable around you than she is me. She's going to come to you first because you know her better than I do. I love her, but I can't help her through everything. What I can't help her with, I hope you can."

"And what I can't help her with, I hope you can," Mac was impressed with the admission of importance that he had in Maxie's life. She would never admit that, she was too stubborn. "Which is why I'm turning to you right now…"

"What do you mean?" Damian cocked an eyebrow. Mac, asking for help? It was rare.

"I said something that I shouldn't have. Something that I thought she wouldn't take offense to, but she did. I compared her to her mother."

"And she shut you out of the room?"

"Close," Mac looked up the stairs, "she says that she's taking a shower, but she could just be standing around making me think that she is."

"She might be taking a shower, it's the morning… people take showers in the morning." Some people did. He did.

"And if she isn't?"

"Then she's just letting out steam… no pun intended." Damian listened and he could hear the faint sound of running water, but there was no way to tell if Maxie was actually inside the shower, or just standing around. "What is it you want me to do, Mac?"

"Make her feel better…" a simple, yet complicated request.

"I'll do what I can," Damian nodded. "I owe you for getting me out of jail when Baldwin wanted to pin those murders on me. And I love her… I'd do it regardless. You do realize that you'll have to let me in the house…"

"Don't let it get out," Mac held the door open, shutting it when Damian walked in.


	19. Coffee for the Soul

Joy- I had to check the reviews, because it looked like I had more than I thought I did, so I saw this one before I got the e-mail (which is usually where I check for reviews). Anyway, I don't think it was a hard conversation for Damian as much as it was Sonny, because, as the conversation stated, Damian stopped hating Sonny for not being there after that one time. As for Sonny, yes, it was meant to be very hard, because not knowing your child is something that parents frequently fear. It's funny, because when I first looked I thought you said something about a beautiful blond, so I had to do a double take there. As for the present that Sonny gets for Damian, yes, it's something that is going to touch him profoundly, but what about the other way around? Trust me, it's something good.

Kelly's-

Amid many personal reservations about his ability to keep his scathing remarks inside his mind whenever he saw or even heard Ric's voice, Mike had told Bobbie that he would remain in charge of the restaurant for the time being. If he truly felt that he couldn't hang with the pressure then and only then would he resign from the position. He owed it to Bobbie for giving him the chance to not blow it so nonchalantly. If it was a small bonus, Ric only tended to lurk around when Elizabeth was on one of her shifts, which seemed to be frequent enough, but she didn't work all the time. None of them did. She seemed to work a lot more than she should have, though. Maybe she was avoiding something? Maybe Elizabeth was trying to get out of her house. Perhaps she was lonely. Mike knew how that felt, to have someone and then have them be gone, even if it was by choice… being alone wasn't something that a person ever got used to.

Mike was alone in the restaurant. Kelly's had just opened for the business day and nobody, not even any of the tenants who made the upstairs apartments their home, had come down for anything, not even a cup of coffee. In that moment, he could be at one with his thoughts, only himself in the area. It made Mike reflect on his past mistakes, the haunting decisions that he had made as a parent. All the failures that he had managed to do, the destruction of his relationship with his son, something that would never truly heal itself no matter how hard either of them tried. He hated being alone because when he was alone that was one of the only things that he ever thought about. At least when he was with people he could focus on their problems. When he was with his family he could work to make them happy, to somehow correct the errors of his past. He could smile with his grandsons, or kiss his beautiful daughter on the forehead or just be there for Sonny when he needed him. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best that Mike could offer, and it was better than what he had offered in the past.

The dishwasher machine made the sound that showed that it was ready to be unloaded. Since Mike had no help, it fell to him. He didn't mind, it was something to occupy his time. The steam that came out when he opened the door of the machine crashed against his face, building up a slight coating of mist around him. He really needed to get someone who could just wash dishes. He really didn't enjoy the chore. Adella could have told anyone that, but she wasn't around anymore. He never even got a chance to say goodbye, or apologize. It was hard on him, especially during the holidays. She loved Christmas. The love of Christmas was instilled in Sonny, and it was good that it was, Sonny needed something that he could look forward to. Something that was pure and good.

He heard the bell that sounded whenever someone walked into the door go off. "Be with you in a minute!" He hollered from behind, in the kitchen as he finished unloading and drying the dishes. They'd be dirty again before he knew it and then he would have to restart the cycle anew. It was a cruel and vicious thing, very much like life.

Finishing and wiping his own sweat off with the rag, Mike tossed the piece of cloth into the wash pile and walked out. "Sorry about that… what can I get…" he stopped when he saw his son's dark features looking at him. Sonny was sitting on the stool.

"You know, if I knew you were that easy to spook, I'd come with a white cloth over me and say that I was a ghost…"

"I just didn't expect you to be here, alone, Michael, that's all." He didn't know why he did it, but there were many times when he would regress to calling Sonny 'Michael.' It was his birth name, after all, but it was one that he rarely used. Michael Corinthos Junior. Mike couldn't be one to complain about not using the name that was given. He was still known as Mike Corbin.

"No matter how many times I've tried to tell myself differently in the past, you're my father… and that allots you certain rights…"

"Like being called 'dad,' maybe?"

"Don't push your luck, Mike," Sonny was quick to shoot down the hope that may have been building up in Mike's mind. He wasn't ready to go back to calling his father 'dad' or anything else that recognized the position that was established. For Sonny, a father was someone that was there for his children when they needed him. For Sonny, a father was everything that Mike wasn't. Courtney may have forgiven him for bailing on her as a child, but Sonny wasn't ready to at that point in time. Sonny may not have ever been ready to forget.

"Fine, son, I accept how you feel about me," Mike didn't need to hide the hurt that came from Sonny's words, and he made no effort to do such a thing. "Why don't you let me make you some breakfast? It'll be on the house…"

"I already ate, thanks," Sonny appreciated the offer, but he wasn't hungry, having had some of what he made for Michael.

"Can I at least offer you a cup of coffee?" Mike was grasping at straws looking for something to act as a peacemaker between two grown men, between father and son. "We use your coffee beans, you know…" the part that may have hurt Mike the most was knowing that the coffee business was more than enough to have Sonny and his children and his wife living comfortably, but it wasn't enough for him. Sonny wanted more, and he had to get it by living life in the most dangerous way possible. Mike couldn't help it. Sonny may have been unhappy with him, but Mike was his father, and Mike was always going to worry about his son.

"Only the best," Sonny replied with a wry grin on his face. He liked his coffee beans, it was why he kept the business around, even when he could have used more successful faces to his illegal operations. "I'd like a cup of coffee…"

"For here… or to go?" Mike feared the answer. If Sonny got it to go then it meant that he would leave in a few minutes. Mike enjoyed the time he spent with Sonny, but it always seemed to be something that was so short, unless it involved one of their family members being in trouble. He was too worried about Michael or Damian to enjoy being around his family when they each had their respective stays in the hospital.

Sonny's first instinct was to get it to go, just in case Mike said something that would set him off. Sonny didn't want to have a war with his father, not again, and certainly not during Christmas. His mother wouldn't have appreciated that in the least, and he wanted to honor her memory around their special time of year. "Here, Mike… I can stick around for a bit. I probably should…"

"Any particular reason?" Mike asked as he grabbed one of the glass cups instead of one of the Styrofoam ones, elated that he could make the choice that he wanted. "You and Carly aren't having another fight, are you?"

"No, we're doing fine," Sonny would have been offended by his father's choice to believe that the worst possible thing had happened, but how could he? Carly and Sonny had fights… frequently. They threatened to divorce each other and got as close as possible to filing… frequently. With a track record like that it was no surprise that people assumed that if there was a problem it was marital. Luckily it wasn't. It wasn't even a problem, not really, jut something that Sonny wanted to talk about and the only person that he knew that he could talk about the issue with was another father. Jason didn't have any children, Max didn't, Meyer didn't. The pool of fathers around him was a very shallow pool indeed.

"So then why are you sticking around?"

"Do I have to have a reason?" Sonny was already beginning to regret the choice of sticking around, especially if the questions kept on coming like they were.

"No, of course not," Mike said in an apologetic tone of voice. It was the only way that he knew how to apologize to Sonny, by sounding sorry without saying that he was. Sonny didn't like verbal apologies, and he rarely took them. "It's just a surprise, that's all. Not like you and I spend that much time together."

"We could have…"

"Yes, we could have," Mike nodded. "But I messed that up, and I know that you hate me for it and I accept that you probably always will, but we can… at least work towards being friends, can't we?"

"We are friends… well, maybe more like acquaintances, but it's not like it was when you first came back. I don't cross the street when I see you on the same side of the sidewalk as me anymore, do I?"

"You have no idea how much that hurt me…" Mike remembered the times that he had spent trying to make it in Port Charles, meeting up with his little boy, now a grown and very independent man.

"For what it's worth… I do regret being so petty," Sonny took off his jacket. He was going to try and spend some time with his father, if not for his mother than for himself. Even he needed a father around sometimes. "I should have just told you what was wrong every time I saw you instead of finding a way to hurt you in the worst possible way." Sonny saw Mike walking towards the door. Was he walking out on Sonny… again? "What are you doing?"

Mike flipped the sign that said that they were open, instead showing that they were closed. It wasn't something that he would normally do, but he didn't want anyone interrupting his alone time with his son, it happened so rarely. "Just making sure that we can really be alone together for a little while, Michael, that's all."

"Should you do that?" Sonny was stunned by the gesture, and a little touched, but only a little, "I mean, what about the money that you could lose out on?"

"Money can only make a person so happy, after all these years I've finally learned that. Forgive an old fool for being blinded by the promise of wealth and not seeing how much it hurt the people that he cared about…" Mike sat down next to Sonny. He had already given himself a cup of coffee that was a little cooled, but it would work out just fine for him. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I'm worried about making the wrong decision when it comes to… well, my son…"

"I get the feeling that you're not talking about Michael or Morgan," Mike knew that Sonny could never make a wrong decision when it came to his younger sons, they both idolized him.

"Good guess…"

"Process of elimination," Mike winked. Unless Sonny had more sons that he had just recently discovered. It had happened once already, who was to say that it wouldn't happen again? "What is it that you're worrying about when it comes to Damian?"

"What if I say something that offends him, Mike? What if I do something that will push him away again? This is like what happened with us, only… well, I'm you… and Damian is me. That's why I needed to come to you, you're the only one who can tell me what to say. I could have gone to Bobbie… but Carly and Damian are entirely different creatures."

"That's putting it mildly," Mike snickered, sipping at his coffee. "Sonny, you care about your son, you want to do what's best for him. The thing that is different about you and Damian that didn't happen with you and me is that he accepted that part about you. He didn't let his disappointment, however justified it was in either case, blind him to the intentions of his father. If you're worried about what you can say to your son or what you do… talk to him. He's not going to lie to you, I would think that you would know that by now."

"I know that he would never lie to me," Sonny was glad that he came to Mike. It was helping. It was helping with a few other things, too. Seeing his father for the man that he was. "He told me something earlier today… when I asked him what he wanted for a present. He told me that whatever I thought of getting him would be fine. How do you shop for someone that you don't know anything about? I have some ideas, but I would hate to be wrong, especially during our first Christmas together."

"How do you shop for someone that you know next to nothing about?" Mike repeated the question, patting Sonny on the back, "By shopping for him using the things that you do know about him. He's always going to have parts of himself that he'll want to keep from everyone, his family, his friends, everyone but himself, he's just that kind of person, but he's also open about a lot of things. He's open about his stance on life, about how he feels. Sonny, I think you know Damian enough to get him something that will make him feel like you do know him."

"And if what I get him makes him think that I don't know him at all?" That was Sonny's greatest fear, the wrong present was much easier to recall than the present that was just perfect.

"Then you speak to him about it after the fact and tell him that you tried your best. He knows that you can only do so much, that you can only do the best that you can, and he'll accept that. I know that about him, and I know him less than you do."

"Are you… going to come and decorate the tree with us this year?" Sonny asked.

"I didn't know that I was invited."

"You're always invited, Mike, you're family."

"Well, maybe I was invited, but I wasn't sure if I would be welcome…"

"I want you there," Sonny admitted. He did want his father there, it was a simple, primal, universal desire to have the people that were loved around.

Mike smiled, "Then I'll be there. Promise."


	20. Special Ordered

Authors Note: Welcome to the 100th page of 'Woe!' Yup, you've read 100 pages of the latest entry in my long, torrid saga. Okay, so it hasn't really been all that dramatic… but, really, it will be! I'll even give you a 100th page hint. Look for three characters who were introduced, or reintroduced during 2004 to appear here, none of which are Diego.

Story-

Morgan Household-

He never thought that it was such a bad tree. It was a good looking tree. It was a tree that, while more than a little oversized, was still a nice touch to the room. Jason would be the first to admit that his home wasn't exactly the most decorated place on the face of the Earth. He probably would have gotten away with not having any furniture in his own house if he didn't live with anyone. That was because Jason Morgan was a man who didn't rely on material possessions. He had grown out of that phase of his life, a part of his life that he couldn't even recall, but a part of his life that he was finished with regardless. No longer was he the type of person who valued a person because of what they could do for him, he valued them because of who they were, how they could help him when he needed it. He didn't even have to ask for help, and they didn't even have to know that they were giving it, simply by being there, by not judging him for the person that he was before and the person that he had become… that was all that Jason needed, all that Jason wanted.

"What are you doing?" Courtney yawned from atop the stairs, dressed in her nightgown, covered by a robe that dragged only slightly on the ground. Despite all the times that she had done it before, when she rolled over and didn't feel her hand touching her husband's body she would always worry about him. It was rare that he was actually still in the house, more often than not he was already running off, doing errands for people, Sonny more than likely. Of course, Jason, even if he had just gotten up, wasn't about to be seen walking around in the clothes that he slept in. It was one of the only times he wore something that exposed parts of his body. Courtney didn't mind, though. It was like he was keeping it just for her. A gift that she could receive all year long.

"I woke up," Jason's answer, like just about everything else that he said, was filled with the most obvious level of simplicity. He would give the bare bones answer whenever possible, people asked less questions that way. "I didn't want to just lay in bed while you slept."

"I wouldn't have minded," Courtney walked down the stairs and clutched her hand in his. "Sometimes I just watch you sleep, you know? The way that you stay in one place for hours at a time. It is the only time that I can actually feel that I'm watching over you, protecting you."

"You're always protecting me, Courtney," Jason didn't know that his wife had such an unusual quirk, but since it was because she loved him so much, he didn't mind. Other people watching him sleep would have been unnerving, but not Courtney. "Even when you're not there beside me, you watch over me, I know that."

"You just never say anything like that, sometimes I'm not sure if you even think about me…"

"You're the first thing in my mind, you have been since the moment that I met you and you will be until the moment that…"

"Don't say it," Courtney begged, putting her index finger on Jason's lips. "We have this wonderful moment between us, don't ruin it, please."

Jason saw it in her eyes. She was afraid of losing him. It was a fear that was reciprocated. He was afraid of losing her. More so himself leaving, never coming back, than worrying about her being the one that could never open her eyes again, but it was always the chance that was open. Someone could take Courtney away from Jason, and that would be the hardest thing that he would ever have to endure. It was no secret that they were married, that they were in love.

Courtney looked for an escape from the harsh reality of the world that they lived in, and, as she often did, she found that escape in the sweet embrace of her husband. Lifting herself up only slightly to make up for the difference in height, Courtney kissed Jason tenderly, closing her eyes, trying to preserve the moment in her mind's eye, knowing that with every kiss that they did have it could be their last.

Jason wrapped his arms around Courtney. She was the one thing that he knew he could rely on whenever he was at his darkest moment. Before… there had been nothing. Elizabeth, as much as he did love her, wasn't able to make him feel the same way that Courtney made him feel. She wasn't able to help him in the way that Courtney could. Elizabeth ran away when it got too dangerous. Courtney cared enough about Jason to tough it out, that meant something to him.

Courtney finally pulled away, more out of necessity to breathe than out of a desire for the kiss to end. "Now I'm kind of glad that you got out of bed, Jason. We would have never had the chance to do that if you had stayed in bed."

"There's always the option of kissing in bed, Courtney," Jason's blank face finally changed to an impish smile.

"Or, other things," Courtney turned around, trying to play coy, but she saw something that caught her eye. A box. She didn't remember there being any extra boxes from her tree shopping spree, which meant that someone had to have brought the box. "Jason, what's this?"

Jason grabbed the box and held it out to her, "Why don't you open it and find out?"

"It's a little early for a Christmas present, Jason…"

"I never said it was a Christmas present," he retorted. The box had not anything that she would think to be a Christmas present, although the theme of the holiday would be apparent once she did take a look at the contents inside. "Just open it, please."

Courtney, curious as to what Jason was hiding, grabbed both ends of the white box and opened the lid. She turned her beautiful blue eyes up to him when she saw what was inside, "Oh my God…" she pulled out a single bulb, one of the many that were inside the box, "Jason, they're gorgeous…"

"Do you really like them?" Jason wasn't one for sentimentality, but doing something like that for his wife just felt right.

"I love them," Courtney examined each of the ornaments. There were so many different colors and they were all etched in different designs. "But... why did you get them? We have enough ornaments on the tree already…"

"I thought that we should have something that had meaning to just the two of us, Courtney," Jason put the box on the counter, save for the one bulb that was in her hand. He took it from her and placed it on the tree. "I never thought that I would need to have something like this in my house ever again. It just didn't feel right after the accident… it didn't feel like it was something that I couldn't be without, but when you and Dillon and everyone else took the time to do this, partly because of me, I realized that it was something that I was missing, at least since you came into my life. I only wish that I would have realized that sooner."

"Better late than never, Jason," Courtney was touched by the speech that he gave. He appreciated what they had done for him. He didn't think that they had forced a tradition down his throat like the Quatermaine's had all those years ago. What they did they did out of love, and he saw that. "Did you wake up early just so that you could find something like this for me?"

"That's not the only reason."

Courtney's eyes lowered, "You had to work, didn't you?" It smothered the touching feeling knowing that she may have come second, that touching her didn't take precedence over doing whatever assignment was on his mind.

"No, Courtney, I woke up early because you snore and I wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep…"

Courtney laughed, "I do not snore!"

"How often do I lie?" Jason's grin returned.

"I can't believe this…" Courtney was amazed. She didn't think that she snored. "How long have I been doing this?"

"Long enough…"

"And you never told me?" She was more amused than hurt, but she would have told Jason if he snored. He didn't. He slept peacefully, it was one of the only times that he looked like he was at peace, but Courtney had a feeling that, even while he was resting his eyes, Jason Morgan was battling the inner demons of his soul, it was one of the battles that she could never help him with. She couldn't get inside her head… maybe he dreamt of her, and she helped in that way, but it wasn't the same.

"It's… cute," Jason said after a pause.

"Did you just say that something was cute?"

"What did you want me to say, Courtney?" Jason shrugged his shoulders. "That you snoring is something that takes you away from being the perfect beauty, that it gives you a flaw? While those things may be true, the fact that you do have a quirk like that is cute, I don't mind admitting it."

"So if I told you that when you slept you looked like a baby, you wouldn't mind?"

"I don't think I could look that innocent…" Jason looked at the ornaments. His innocence was long since shattered, and even when it came back it was taken from him. Most people didn't have to lose their innocence more than once, but he did.

"Thank you…" Courtney rubbed her hand up and down his back.

"For what?"

"For being you," she said. "For loving me, despite the fact that I snore. For understanding how I feel about what you do, even though we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. But, most importantly, for helping make this Christmas even better than it was going to be by buying ornaments that I'm always going to cherish."

"It wouldn't have happened if you didn't get the idea to get the tree…"

"It wasn't my idea."

"I know, it was Dillon's, but you helped him by saying that it was okay. You took a chance on how I would have felt about it, and it paid off in the end. I'm glad that you took it."

"You don't think it makes the house smell too much like pine?" Courtney asked, she could smell the pine from her room.

"I like the smell of pine," Jason grabbed another ornament. "Where do you think this one should go?"

"A little to the left…"

"Here?"

"Higher," Courtney walked over and guided his hand with her own. "See? Doesn't it look great there?"

"Anywhere that you would want to put it would be perfect," Jason pulled his hand away and looked at the ornament. They had their problems. All married couples did, Carly and Sonny had enough to make up for about five couples, but they would always come together when it was needed. They would always be there for each other.

"How spirited are you?" Courtney wondered. If there was ever a time to propose what she was going to ask, it was that moment.

Jason didn't like the question, "Courtney…"

"No, I'm not going to ask you to dress up like Santa Clause or anything. Your eyes would give you away…" anyone who met Jason kept the image of his eyes in their head, his eyes were his and his alone. "It's just… we can do so much more than just the tree, you know? We can bake cookies… make gingerbread houses… decorate the house…"

"Don't go overboard," Jason imagined how the house would look. Stockings by the fireplace. They'd probably want to take his pool table out, and he wasn't about to have that. "You want to bake, go ahead, bake… if you know how."

"You're probably right… Sonny's the one who knows how to cook. I can just make chicken pot pie."

"I like chicken pot pie, especially yours."

"You know just what to say about my cooking, don't you?"

"What did I just tell you earlier, when do I lie? Your pot pie is good. Maybe you can make it for lunch on Christmas Day."

"Maybe… but I don't think Sonny will like the competition."

"We just won't tell Sonny then." Jason's phone went off. Sighing, he answered the phone. "Yeah?" A moment passed as the person on the other end spoke. His eyes turned to Courtney and he spoke once more, "I'll be right there."

"What's wrong?"

"Just something that I need to take care of, nothing big, but it needs to be done. Sorry, but…"

"No, its okay," she smiled, trying to shield her hurt. "You need to go, you should go." Jason closed the door and Courtney saw the ornament that they put on the tree fall off the branch. She reached out and grabbed it, saving it from eminent shattering.


	21. Why Don't We?

T- Thank you for the review. I was also quite enamored by that particular pairing and hope to exploit it some more in the future. Alas, so far there has been nothing of the sort since then. Carly's been pretty mum lately, same for Courtney. Dillon's going to have a big part of the focus for the chapters that I'm writing as of right now, much less, as in next to none, of Damian for awhile, but first there are going to be a whole lot of Damian centric chapters. I hope you continue to enjoy.

Story-

Park-

"There's something odd about you, you know that?"

"What would that be?"

"You're not complaining…" Maxie giggled, remembering how much her dear boyfriend had complained about the coldness of the outside when they were looking for the Christmas tree the day before. She'd never say anything, but she could hear him from hundreds of feet away. "I mean, we're outside, walking, in the snow, and you're not complaining…"

"Maybe the company is better," Damian looked down at her as the passed by an elderly couple who were walking in the other direction. He smiled at them and wondered if he and Maxie would be like that. Together into their golden years, living their lives together. He wanted that, but that didn't mean that he thought it was something that he could get.

"Are you saying that you have more fun with me than you do with your best friend, your little brother and your aunt?"

"That's what I'm saying, yes. And do you know why you're better company than all of them?"

"No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me…"

"Or show you," Damian kissed her on the lips, as he had done many times in the past, as he would do many times in the future, and each time it was something that was special, unique from the time before. He knew that he could spend the rest of his life doing the same exact thing, no matter what it was, and as long as he had her by his side he wouldn't think that there was anything wrong with life. "Now, could you picture me doing that with Dillon or Michael or Aunt Courtney?"

"That depends on what your stance on incest is…"

"Maxie…"

"I'm kidding!" She playfully tugged at his arm, dragging him through the park. It was good that she was laughing. She had woken up and she was fine, and then she ended up being nothing but hurt and angry by what Mac had said to her. Fitting that it was the one person who saved her from herself before that could make her feel better again, even more fitting that it was the same man that she had pledged her heart to. "You don't have to look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're upset with me."

"How do you know I'm not kidding, too?" The whole 'penetrating stare of death' thing was a family trait. Even Michael ended up having one. Aside from the dimples, it was probably one of the better things that Damian could have inherited from his father. "Because I can assure you that I am. I could never be mad at you, Maxie, not for something like that."

"Have you ever been mad at me before?" She hadn't thought about it. Had he been mad at her before? He was so good at hiding his emotions from everyone, even her, that he could have been shielding his rage from her. Maybe there were times when he wanted to break up with her and he held it in, let it ride. She wanted to know, that way she could try and fix the mistakes before they became problems again. She wanted to keep him around.

"I've never been mad at you, Maxie. Disappointed, maybe, but never mad."

"Disappointed? How?"

"Do you really want to know?" He was cautious in telling her. She was vulnerable. She may have put up a tough face, but inside she was entirely open to hurt and to sorrow. He'd seen how she acted when her wall of stability was ripped apart. He didn't want her to ever go through that again, and if he happened to be the one who caused said wall to crumble he could never forgive himself.

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know," she answered. "Please," she placed her tender hand on his cheek, "I want to know."

Sighing heavily, he knew that he had to give her what she wanted. It was something that was about her, therefore it was something that she deserved to know. Even if it ended up hurting her, which it might have, she asked. He was stuck. "Without even knowing you, Maxie, I was disappointed in you. When I met you that first day outside Kelly's, after you had gotten into a fight with Kyle, after I had seen the type of person that he was and how you were just so hopelessly involved with him because of what you thought was love, I was disappointed. You deserved better. Someone as beautiful as you didn't deserve to be treated in the way that he treated you, but you didn't realize that. Or, if you did, you just didn't want anything more. To be in such a relationship by choice was something that I couldn't fathom, and that saddened me, knowing that you had the made the choice."

"I was stupid," Maxie wasn't hurt. In fact, far from it, she was content that at least she hadn't done something to him that had disappointed him. She was disappointed in herself for doing the same thing, and she knew that everyone else around her felt the same degree of sadness in her choices. "I didn't know any better, but you taught me what it really meant to be in a relationship where two people could talk to each other, share things. With Kyle it was always just kissing, or doing something that I shouldn't have done like getting drunk or doing some drug and then having sex. Kyle would never do the things that you've done for me, Damian. He'd never hold my hand when I needed someone to lean on, he would never help me with my family problems, he would never tell me that he didn't want to have sex. You've done all those things for me."

"Fitting that we should talk about him when we're here, don't you think?" Damian asked, looking around. Maybe it wasn't the same exact spot where he and Kyle had punched each other because of the way that he was treating Maxie, but it was still the same park, it was the true start to the relationship that he was currently completely engrossed in. "I do wish that I could have done something for him. I may not have liked the boy, but I didn't want him to die."

"Neither did I. And if anyone had the right to want Kyle dead, it would be me. He did so many horrible things to me, things that I didn't even think were that bad until I really thought about them. He made me believe that I was his, he twisted me into someone who did things that I knew were wrong, but did them for him. Even through all that… I don't know, I just didn't want him to die, especially not the way that he did." She held back tears, keeping the long since promised vow that she would never shed another tear because of Kyle Radcliff. "Could we talk about something else, please?"

"I'm sure talking about how you looked when I saw you at your house earlier this morning is out of the question…"

As Maxie had observed, Damian was the master of switching the mood around. It was a good thing when she was in a bad mood and he made it better, but he could do the flip side just as easily, although it was something that he tried to keep himself from doing whenever possible. She blushed when she thought about it. "I didn't know that you were going to be in my living room!"

"Neither did I," Damian admitted, scratching the back of his head uneasily. "I thought Mac was going to kill me for seeing you while you weren't fully clothed. Heaven forbid I see your ankle."

"I was in a bath robe…"

"It had bumblebees and ducks on it, too," Damian winked at his girlfriend, getting enjoyment out of seeing her face turn yet another shade of red. He didn't think people could blush that much.

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"My lips are sealed, Maxie," Damian brushed a few snowflakes that had built up around her hair out of the way. "I would never do something that would embarrass you."

"So you're not going to come to the Christmas Party at General Hospital, then?"

"Of course I am!" He cut the idea out of her head before the plan could even formulate. "Maxie, what you're going to do for those children is something that a lot of people would never actually do. There are so many people that just want to help others, but never actually do. They don't realize that just by being around the people that need help, just by showing them that they care… it's enough. It doesn't cost them anything. When those little kids see you dressed up like an elf, they're going to feel better. No matter what they're going through, seeing you and your sister will lift their spirits up, if only for a few hours."

"But the outfit is so… horrible…" she hated wearing the outfit, truly, she did. The long stockings of multiple colors and the tacky hat. But Damian was right. The way the kids looked at her when she handed out candy canes to them, the glint in their eyes, it made her discomfort all worthwhile. "Just promise me that you won't take any… pictures…" she remembered what she was thinking about before Mac got her thinking about her mother. She was thinking about them, about how they didn't have any pictures. She turned away, looking at the sky as the flakes fell to the ground.

Damian noticed the quick shift in her mood. He didn't like what it could have meant for her, for him, for them. Placing his hand firmly on her shoulder, he spoke in a soft, comforting tone, "Maxie, what is it?"

"You're probably going to think that this is something that's really stupid… and I don't even know why I care about it…"

"Is it important to you?" Damian didn't have any clue what she was talking about, but he wanted to know what it was and he wanted to know why it was so important to her.

"In a way, yes. It's nothing big, but it's just something that I've had on my mind for a little while. Like I said, you're probably not going to care about it either way."

"Maxie, if it's even marginally important to you, then that makes it important to me. You can tell me… I want you to tell me."

"We don't have any pictures of us," Maxie closed her eyes. She sounded like such a moron. Only little girls cared about stupid things like pictures of her and her boyfriend. "We've been going out for months, Damian, and we've never taken one picture together. I don't know why we haven't… it's just never came up, and do you see why it's something that shouldn't matter?"

"I don't like pictures," Damian wasn't the most photogenic person around. He never had been, he probably never would be. "It's just something that I've never had an affinity towards. You should see the lengths I went to in order to avoid taking pictures for the yearbooks at school. Even when I was little, pictures were something that I hated taking."

"Do you know why?" She was curious. There was always a reason that Damian had whatever quirk it was that was in his personality. He liked playing the piano because it was something that helped him escape from the cold reality of life. He wanted to be a doctor because of what happened with his mother. So what was the reason that he didn't like to take photos?

"No, I don't," he answered the only way that he knew how to answer, with complete honesty. "Maybe because I don't like looking at myself when I'm in a picture? I don't like looking at how I was and knowing how much I've changed, and then I think about the mistakes that I made and I regret making them?"

"So… you don't want to take pictures with me, then? Even if we get married, if we have children, you won't have any pictures with me?'

"No, I will take pictures with you."

She smiled, overjoyed that he was willing to do something for her, because she knew that it meant that he loved her that much. "Really?"

"Maxie, I don't like taking pictures because it shows me the mistakes that I've made, with you, there aren't any. I'm never going to look at a picture that I've taken with you and say to myself that I regretted something that happened either before or after that picture, because with you there are no regrets. You want us to take pictures together? Then that's what we'll do."

"With Santa?"

"Now don't go and get any crazy ideas in your head. I'll take pictures with you, but I'm not about to go and sit on some poor man's lap."

"What if I sit on his lap?"

"No, Maxie, just… no. There are limits to what I'm willing to do for you… and we've just found one."

"Could we take some of those professional photos, then? Just the two of us?"

"See, now you're starting to understand how I work," Damian lifted her hands up with his own, "I just want you to be happy."


	22. Momentary Retreat

Corinthos Household-

Sonny walked into his home after his conversation with Mike. It was longer than he expected it to be, but that wasn't surprising. He tended to have a streak of talking to Mike for longer than he thought. What was surprising was the fact that they were actually talking, and having a good conversation. Gone, at least for that moment, was the atmosphere and hate and neglect and sadness. They were both fathers. They had to be able to relate on that level. Sonny may have been the more fatherly figure of the two, but nothing changed the fact that Mike was a dad.

"Sonny…"

Sonny was stopped before he could even close the door. He heard his wife's voice, the sweet softness that he couldn't live without. Carly may have had moments where her voice was something scary, but for the most part it was pleasant. "Did you sleep well?"

"Fine, thanks," Carly ran her index finger around the rim of her coffee mug. "You know how much I love having that big king size bed all to myself. It's about the only thing that could challenge how much I love when I have someone in that same bed with me…"

"You have someone specific in mind?" Sonny sat next to her, dimples flashing.

"I don't think that you should know the answer to that question. Especially if you have to ask…"

"I'll just assume that the person you enjoy having in bed with you is me. That way I can manage to get some sleep when I'm in bed with you. How's that?"

"Whatever makes you happy, Sonny," Carly was playing with Sonny in the way that she often did. Of course Sonny was the one that she wanted in her bed next to her, she was his wife, he was her life. Throughout it all, even the times when she knew how much she hated Sonny she also knew that despite that she loved him even more. The angry feelings that she felt for him at various points in her life, most recently when he refused to let his son stay out of his life, were strong, but nothing had ever gotten them to the point where they could break things off with one another and keep themselves from getting back together.

"What are the boys doing?" Sonny would always ask for a progress report on his children when he came back after being away, even if it was only for a short time. If he left for a long enough time in his mind to merit the knowledge of his children's activities, he would find out.

"Morgan just went back to sleep," Carly's motherly instincts shined when she thought of how sweet her baby looked as he curled up inside his warm blanket. "I gave Leticia enough time to take a nice relaxing shower while I watched my own child…"

"She deserves the time to herself…"

"Sonny…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you," Carly paused, "do you think that we don't spend enough time with our children? That we just push them on anyone who will take them away from us, even for a little while? We have Leticia, Max, Jason, Courtney and even Damian. The boys love spending time with all of them. I don't worry about Michael that much, but what about Morgan? What if he starts rejecting us as his parents because we're not always there for him?"

"But we are there for him, Carly," Sonny sympathized with his wife, because it was a fear that he commonly found himself feeling. He knew what happened when a father wasn't around his children as much as they needed him. He had been through that. He didn't want Michael or Morgan to hate him the way that Sonny hated Mike, that would cut through him even more than any bullet ever could. "We have a lot of things that we have to do, you know that. I'm always running around, doing things that I shouldn't do with a child around, and that's why I don't take the boys with me. And you… the Cellar isn't exactly the best place for a baby to grow up, unless you want him to become an alcoholic."

"Sonny!" Carly was astonished that her husband was thinking about the possibility of their baby becoming a drunk. But she had to admit that he had a point. Their lives didn't make for the most social interaction time with their children, and at least they had people that they could depend on. "I don't know why I'm thinking about this… it's just, sometimes, I worry about the way that Morgan looks at me and I wonder if he recognizes me right away, or if he's thinking 'who is this woman again?' That's something that I want to get out of my mind."

"Everyone knows their mother, Carly…"

"I didn't…"

"If Bobbie had been able to keep you and raise you the way that she wanted, Carly, you would have known who she was even if she wasn't around all the time. There's this connection that children automatically make with their parents, it's impossible to sever… at least as long as the connection is made." Sonny turned his head away, "If it's not, then I guess it makes it easier to lose a parent, or not even have one at all."

"You didn't know, Sonny. You didn't know." And yet, there was still the part of Carly that wished he had never known. She wouldn't lie and say that she didn't think Damian was a good influence on her family, because he was, but they went through so many problems after he came, because he came, that she truly wasn't sure if it was all worth it in the end. She didn't know if she would ever be sure that it was worth it. "And you have a strong connection with your son now. He depends on you for a lot of things, he sees you and he knows that you're there for him. Doesn't that mean something to you?"

"You know it does, Carly. It means the world to me that I have children who know that they can depend on me in ways that we didn't think we could depend on ours. I don't know, I guess a part of me is always just waiting for some pent up rage to come out of Damian that he's been storing. I know it's not going to happen, that my son isn't harboring a grudge, I know it in my heart, but my mind keeps on telling me things like 'how could he not at least be mad at you a little bit?' And my mind never lets me forget."

"You're your own worst enemy, Sonny Corinthos, you know that?" Carly gently ran her fingers through the hair on the side of his face. She was in anguish because he was. If Sonny was hurt, then, by default, she was also hurt, even when she was the one who caused Sonny to be hurt. Their bond was so strong that they felt each other throughout everything.

"I know, and the worst part is that I'm the one person that I can't beat, no matter how hard I try."

"Then maybe you should just let yourself reach a stable mate between your heart and your brain," Carly suggested the one thing that she thought might work, but she knew that it was Sonny's battle, a very private battle.

"I wish it were that simple."

"I know, it's always complicated," Carly gave a meek, sad smile, "our lives are always complicated. Even when we're having a good time, like we are right now, there's something that threatens that peace."

Sonny found himself looking at the cabinet that he had his gun in. This time it was closed. He didn't know why he looked, probably just tense nerves, but he was glad that he didn't make the same mistake again.

"Where'd you go, Sonny?" Carly saw where he was looking and knew what he was thinking. She had looked at the same spot when she walked downstairs for the first time. She also knew that if Sonny didn't want to talk to her about where he went, he wouldn't, and she would accept that. It didn't stop her from asking.

"To see Mike."

"Did something happen? Did he get into another huge debt with the loan sharks?" Like most people, Carly assumed the worst whenever Sonny went to go see his father, because it was often only when Mike needed someone with Sonny's power to bail him out of whatever jam he was in that Sonny even bothered to go near the man. "Sonny, you can't keep on bailing your father out of every problem that he comes across. You're the son, he should be helping you."

"He did help me."

Stunned, Carly fell silent for a second. Sonny needed help, from Mike? "What do you mean?"

"I went to my father for advice."

"Advice on what?" The shock had turned into interest and questions quicker than she thought, but it was a rare moment in their lives, one that she wanted to know more about. "Sonny, is there something that you're afraid to tell me? You know that, even though I might react strongly at first, I'll eventually find a way to make peace with anything that you tell me. Please, Sonny, I don't want you to hide anything from me, not anymore."

"You couldn't help me, Carly. Not because you were involved, you're not, just because I needed the input from another father."

"And you went to Mike?"

"Odd, isn't it?" Sonny got up and took his jacket off, pulling out his phone and pressing one of the buttons that connected him directly with the person that he wanted to speak with. "Call me when the jet is ready. Thanks."

"The Jet?" Carly was a little scared. Did Sonny need to go and get into a gang war? "Where are you going?"

"Just to do something that I need to do…alone," Sonny kissed her on the cheek. "Carly, I promise you, this isn't dangerous on any level. I need to go see some people and get something that I can only get from them. I won't be gone long, in fact, I'll be back tonight."

"So did Mike have something to do with this epiphany and sudden spur of the moment trip?" Carly took Sonny's word, because he promised her that he would be all right. That didn't mean that she had to like it, or not worry about him, but she was somewhat content with the promise.

"He did. He helped me get some perspective on my situation. For once, Mike is the best person that I could have hoped to lean on. The relationship between him and I is the closest thing to the relationship that I have with Damian. That's why I went to him, Carly. He told me that I didn't need to worry about my relationship with my son, because I was doing everything in my power to make it the best relationship that it can be."

"You are, Sonny. You and him have had your problems, but what father and son haven't? I'll be the first to admit that your problems are a little more… unique than the problems that normal fathers and sons go through, but they're still problems. Besides, he went through that lovely identity crisis that everyone seems to go through, and he found that identity through you and through our family. Are you going to tell me where you're going without me?"

"Carly, I can't," Sonny sat down again. The plane wouldn't be ready for some time. "Just do me a favor, okay?"

"What's that?"

"Don't destroy anything, or anyone. I've neglected taking any time that would take me away from Port Charles because of what happened the last time I left. I don't want to call you and have you tell me that someone's in the hospital again."

Carly knew that Sonny didn't know that she was indirectly responsible for what happened with Damian, but the way that she was told not to destroy anything made her think that maybe, just maybe, he did know. It was better to ere on the side of caution rather than make a painful confessionary, though. "I'll do what I can. Maybe I'll bake some Christmas cookies…"

"I said not to destroy anything. You go near the kitchen and that counts as destruction."

"What if I don't touch anything?"

"You don't need to touch something in the kitchen to make a mess out of it, Carly. You're that special." Sonny grinned as he recalled Carly's various kitchen mishaps. She truly did have a knack for making a mess in that particular room.

"You destroy my self esteem with your scathing remarks."

"You shouldn't have any self-esteem when it comes to cooking, Carly. You should just know that it's something that you can't do. If you want cookies, buy them from Kelly's, don't risk burning the house down. It's bulletproof, not flame retardant."

Carly shook her head and glared at her husband. He was so mean to her… but she loved him anyway.


	23. Never Let Go

Joy- Welcome back to the land of reviewing. I wouldn't call what happened between the two of them mending fences so much as it was putting up with each other for the sake of someone that they both care about. They're mature men. They can put aside their vast differences to help Maxie out. They've done it before. Plus, I got to use Mac, which is fun. I love the banter, it's true.

Story-

Ric Lansing's Apartment-

Ric groaned from his bedroom, running his hand down his face as he forced himself to wake up when the pounding at his door didn't stop. At first he thought it was just some massive headache that was echoing in his mind, but that proved to be the furthest from the truth. It would have been fitting, he was nursing a guilty conscience, something that people wouldn't readily attribute to him. Ric Lansing was one of those people. He didn't think that he would ever go through some sort of moral battle, at least not when it involved his family. He would often battle with himself over the love that he had for Elizabeth, a love that he knew he didn't deserve, but a love that he also knew he couldn't live without.

Although he had tried to avoid it, he couldn't. Even though they were no longer married anymore he still had fond memories of their times together. He still remembered the fun that they had, even though the good times were severely outweighed by the bad times. He remembered all the bad times, too. Lying to Elizabeth, making it so that they couldn't conceive a child of their own while he kept Carly locked away mere feet away. At his worst, Ric was a sadist, but at his best he knew that he was a man with good intentions and a strong heart.

Picking up the picture that they had taken shortly after their wedding, Ric became annoyed when he continued to hear the knocking on his door, "All right, I'm coming!" He headed toward the door, throwing it open, "What could be so important that…" his voice silenced itself when he saw that Elizabeth was the one who had been knocking so intensely at his door. He was about to tell the woman that he loved off, rip her apart with his verbal berating. Luckily, he managed to stop himself before he began to use the more colorful language at his disposal. In some ways, Ric was his father's son, as much as he would try to not admit that fact. "Elizabeth…"

"Did I come at a bad time?" Elizabeth wasn't expecting Ric to act the way he was acting, especially since she was one of the few people who he could admit to liking. Maybe she should have called first, but she didn't think that she needed to call.

"No time could ever be bad if you're around, Elizabeth," Ric held the door open for his ex-wife. "Please, come in."

"I can see that I woke you up," Elizabeth walked into the house, carrying a simple cardboard box. "Really, Ric, if you'd rather sleep I could come back later."

"How'd you know that I barely woke up?"

"Well, you usually don't walk around your house in your boxers, do you?" Elizabeth looked down at Ric, who was wearing smoke gray boxers. She'd seen what was under those boxers, she was sure he wouldn't mind her looking.

"And if I did?" Ric blushed, if only slightly. "This is my home, Elizabeth, if I choose to walk around in my boxers, or stark naked, then the choice is mine to make."

"At least tell me that you walk around naked at night, or at least have all the blinds down…"

"Well, I'm not a nudist. I'd like to think that I've maintained some bit of modesty in my varied years of life. Of course I don't walk around naked… at all, promise. And even if I did, I wouldn't do it to give people a peep show. Unless, of course, that person was you."

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer sometime," Elizabeth remarked. "But now is not that time…"

"Could you excuse me for a moment?" Ric turned around, heading back toward his room, "I'd like to get some sweatpants on or something, just in case we have any other guests that decide to come around."

"No problem," Elizabeth put the box on the table and looked around. She couldn't help it. She wanted to see if there were any clues to Ric having someone else in his life. They were an item again. They would hold hands, go to dinner, kiss, but that didn't mean that they were married anymore. Maybe Ric needed someone to give him something that Elizabeth couldn't. That wasn't the reason why she went to his house, of course, but since she was given the chance to at least satisfy her curiosity, she was going to take it.

Ric had sold the house that they had bought. The dream house that they thought they would spend the rest of their lives together in, that they would raise the child that they lost together in. The little house that had so much promise but turned into the house from Hell. With no place else to go, he returned to the apartment that he had been in before they got married. She knew it well, but there were things that were different about the apartment. Things that she noticed within a few seconds. Ric had always insisted on taking her home after they went out together, and she never wondered why. Maybe now she was finding the reasons. Their pictures were still everywhere. Pictures of them together at various places. It became obvious to Elizabeth… he wasn't over her. He didn't need to be over her, but she didn't have that many pictures of him in her apartment. In fact, she barely had any.

"There," Ric came back into the living room, "I trust that the attire fits your rigid standards of fashion?" He could see that Elizabeth was distracted, and that she was looking at the pictures. Taking one of them from their place, he walked over to her, holding it out in front of her. "Do you remember when we took this picture, Elizabeth?"

"I could never forget," she gently caressed the picture with her finger. They both looked so happy, so vibrant. It was shortly after they had gotten married. They had gone to the park right when the flowers were blooming. Ric had picked some of the loveliest flowers that he could find for her.

"There was a time when I thought that every day of our lives would have a moment like that in it. I probably shouldn't have been so blind."

"You weren't blind," Elizabeth sighed. "I thought the same thing, Ric. All couples do, at least when they start out. Everything should be so perfect, and sometimes it is, but people try and keep themselves from seeing that life can't be filled with nothing but good times and happiness, if it was, well, people would probably break up sooner, or just never get involved with each other at all."

"Do you miss those times, Elizabeth?"

"Of course I miss those times," Elizabeth took the picture and walked it back to its proper place. "And I miss you, Ric, but we can't keep dwelling on the past. We're not going to get anywhere if we're constantly reminded of the mistakes that we made before, not that either of us could ever forget them."

"Is that why you don't have many pictures of us together at your apartment?"

"Yeah, that's why," Elizabeth sat down on the couch. "It doesn't mean that I don't look upon the times that we did have and smile, but the constant reminders, I don't know if I want something like that. It's easier to just remember the good times rather than look at them, makes it less difficult to remember how it all ended."

"If I could erase…"

"But you can't," Elizabeth's eyes were filled with sorrow. "Even though I know you would erase the mistakes, and I love you for saying that you would, we can't do what was undone."

"Does it make you uncomfortable? The fact that I have all these memories of our times together?"

"A little," Elizabeth wouldn't lie to Ric, that was part of the reason why they had ruined their relationship the first time, because it seemed to be built up on nothing but lies, the only truth being that somewhere deep inside each of them there was that love for the other. "But this is your house, Ric, you can furnish it however you see fit."

"I can put them away if it makes you uncomfortable. I want you to enjoy yourself while you're in my home, Elizabeth. You deserve to enjoy yourself wherever you go and I would really like to think that you wouldn't hate being here, that would tear at me."

"Ric, don't do it if you don't want to. Like I said, this is your home, not mine."

"I guess we're different in that respect, then," Ric took a seat next to his beloved. "You don't like to be reminded of the good times through pictures because it reminds you of the bad times, but I need to look at the good times because I need to remember that, yes, there were good times. I messed everything up, but I like to know that there were times that I did things that were nice, things that made you happy."

"You made me happier than anyone else ever has before, Ric."

"I probably made you sadder than anyone else has, too."

"I still love you, though. And I never hated you. We broke up because of what you did, and while I was angry and hurt, I never thought in my heart for a second that you were someone that I hated. I might hate a part of you, but I know that the part I hate isn't the only part of you and I know that the part that I love inside of you is the part that is really you."

"Would you like some coffee?" Ric asked, realizing that he was being an improper host. Besides, he could use some.

"I'd love some, but I can make it if you're still sleepy…"

"Sit. This is my home, you're my guest, and I think I can manage to make some coffee. I know I'm not the best gourmand in the world, but they make it really simple. Put the coffee in the machine, fill the machine with water, turn the machine on. I don't need a degree in law to know how to do that." Ric kissed her softly on the cheek, not sure if he should have done it, but knowing that he wanted to do it. "Now, if you want an actual breakfast, that might be a little too complicated."

"No, just coffee," Elizabeth watched him walk into the kitchen from the living room. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, Elizabeth, you know that," Ric shuffled through the cabinets, looking for the coffee. He should have remembered where it was, but he was having a moment of haze.

"Why were you sleeping? You're usually up earlier than I am."

"Even district attorneys of criminal hubs need to get their beauty rest every now and then, Elizabeth. This is one of the few times when I don't need to set my alarm clock. I guess I'm still like a kid in that respect. If I can sleep in, I do. But, I guess I should have gotten up anyway. If I knew you were coming I would have made sure to look… well, better than this."

"I think you look natural," Elizabeth commented. "I like the way you look in your suits, don't get me wrong, but, seeing you like you are right now, in your pajamas, your hair a frazzled mess and the stubble on your face… it reminds me of how you would look when I would look over my shoulder while you were sleeping."

"Don't let it get out that I'm human, okay?" Ric returned to his seat by her side. "People would take that and use it against me."

"I would think that people would want to know that you're human, Ric."

"The people who need to know just what type of person I truly am already do know, Elizabeth, everyone else doesn't matter to me. I don't need to prove myself to anyone, not even Sonny. All I need is you."

"And your nephew…"

"He's just a fringe benefit," Ric retorted. "Don't get me wrong, I love having a member of my family that I can communicate with, that I can talk to, that accepts me, but even if he weren't here I'd be just fine only having you back in my life. What's in the box? Did you go and get some more art supplies?"

"No," Elizabeth didn't need any more art supplies, she had plenty.

"So then what is it?"

"Christmas decorations…"

"For your house?"

"For yours," Elizabeth smiled. "I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"Elizabeth… I appreciate the offer, truly, I do, but I don't know if I can stand to have a bunch of festive cheer around the house. I thought you knew that I didn't care for Christmas."

"We've never had a Christmas together, Ric. We were broken up before our first one."

"Oh…" Ric said softly. "Well, I hate to tell you this, Elizabeth, but Christmas is hardly my favorite time of the year."

"Have you even tried to make your Christmases a little better?" She wanted him to enjoy himself, it was the best time to do just that, to forget all the problems that were in his life, which she knew were plenty.

"Why bother? What's the point of having a few days a year where you keep yourself ignorant to the problems that are all around you?" Ric lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to sound so harsh. Forgive me."

"No, it's fine," Elizabeth felt uncomfortable instantly. "I… umm… need to get to work. I forgot about my shift. I'm going to be late."

"But what about the coffee?"

"I'll get some when I get there. See you later." Elizabeth grabbed her purse and left, leaving the box, forgetting the box.

"Elizabeth!" Ric called out, but it was too late. She was gone. Angered at himself, he knocked the box over, hearing the contents fall out. He looked over and saw the spilled decorations before throwing his head back against the couch.


	24. Purchasing Perils

Joy- Rest assured, my good lady, that there is, at this very point in time, no plans to do anything in the least that would disrupt the tenderness of our beloved Journey. I just wanted to give them a moment to themselves, because they didn't get one yet and, dammit, they deserved one! The ornament falling was symbolism for the frailty of their relationship, but it wasn't foreshadowing. At least it wasn't yet.

Port Charles Mall-

Damian, by definition, tended to avoid malls whenever possible. He didn't like being around such large masses of people, pushing their way around the crowd, not being respectful for the other people in the least. Malls, as far as he was concerned, were the downfall of modern society. His backing for the fact? Carly loved malls. It spoke volumes for the corruption of materialism. The 80s had a lot to answer for.

However, he didn't really have a choice. He needed to do some Christmas shopping for his family. His father had given him money, lots of money, including the credit card that had next to no limit and told him to buy whatever he thought would work for everyone. It would be rude to have the money, which was more given than received, and not do anything with it. It would be even worse still to have nothing for his family during their first Christmas. It wasn't that he wanted to impress them, but he did want to give them each something that he thought they would enjoy. And then there was Maxie. How could he not get his girlfriend something for Christmas? He'd be lynched by the spirits of togetherness. Granted, buying Maxie a Christmas present was going to be neigh impossible with her two feet away, but he could at least look, notice if something took her attention away and save that idea for later.

"This is so cute!" She squealed as Damian was looking away.

Turning his head to see what the commotion was all about, he could only laugh when he saw that she was holding up a child's shirt, a boy's shirt. "I don't think you should be trying to wear that, Maxie. You're a little too old for it, don't you think?"

"I thought Michael might like it, actually. Don't you think he would look adorable in it?"

"I think that he would hate the idea of me thinking about him looking adorable in anything," Damian responded nonchalantly. Michael would indeed lament the idea of looking 'cute' in front of his big brother. He wanted to be one of the boys when he was around Damian, putting him in a little… sailor's outfit… was only going to cause problems, and there was always the chance that Michael would be bigger than him eventually. Not to mention the fact that he was over a decade older than his younger brother, by the time Michael was old enough to vote, Damian would be closing in on middle age. That wasn't a pleasant thought. "Besides, I didn't want to get Michael any clothes…"

"Why not?" Maxie grumbled as she put the outfit away. Perhaps when she had a son… she didn't have a little brother. Hell, she didn't even have a young cousin that she could give it to.

"Because Michael's a kid. You don't get kids clothes for presents, it's a law."

"I loved getting clothes when I was a little girl." Maxie would covet opening the box that would have a nice jacket or dress.

"But you loved getting toys more than clothes, didn't you?"

Silenced, Maxie thought about it. It didn't take long for her to give him a response, "Yeah, toys were always better than clothes."

"See?" Damian grinned. "Plus, little girls tend to like getting clothes more than little boys, considering that teenage girls enjoy shopping for clothes more than teenage boys… and in every other age group…"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were being gender biased."

"Call them like I see them." Damian continued to shuttle through the varied goods that were in the store, people were rushing past him and kids were screaming about how they wanted to open their presents right away. It was enough to drive someone mad. "Nobody ever said that this was going to be easy… but nobody ever said it was going to be so god damned hard!"

"Why are we even here if you're not going to get something for Michael?" Maxie asked, smiling at all the people as the pushed by. Unlike her boyfriend, the hectic state of the people while they were shopping for that last Christmas item was something that she enjoyed. Some would say that she enjoyed it too much, Damian was one of those people. "For Morgan?"

"I don't know what to get my baby brother," Damian admitted. "It's not like he can talk to me and tell me he wants something, and he's not old enough to have developed some truly unique interests. He'll spend more time playing with the box and the wrapping paper… maybe I should just get him a couple of those."

"If you do that I will never let you live it down," Maxie could just see Damian come in with a bunch of boxes and let Morgan have the time of his life. It was a nice gesture, but it wasn't a Christmas present. "You could get him a stuffed animal…"

"He has dozens of them," Damian had seen the nursery. The problem with a rich family? They provided everything that a baby could ever want or need… and more. Even the things that would be considered niche by some were acquired by Sonny and Carly. Morgan would want for nothing, which made shopping highly problematic. "He has everything, Maxie. Pacifiers, toys, clothes, those activity center things… everything…"

"He didn't have you in his life until a few months ago…"

"That's not a Christmas present."

"No, but it's a fact," Maxie took him by the hand, pulling at him. "Come on, let's get out of here. We're not going to find anything for your brothers, and I don't have to worry about shopping for any children in the foreseeable future."

"Thankfully this is only a yearly thing… if I had to put up with trying to find a decent present for people on a monthly basis I'd go crazy."

"You're already going a little crazy."

"Thanks for pointing that out," Damian took a breath as they finally exited the building. The halls were still crowded, but much less so. "So far the score is in the mall's favor, Maxie. I don't think I can do this."

"You're giving up?" Maxie didn't buy it. Damian wouldn't give up, no matter what. If it was something important like saving the life of someone that he cared or even didn't know about or if it was something completely trivial like shopping for a Christmas present, she knew that he would find a way to make it work.

"Actually… I'm not," Damian saw a store that caught his interest. There was no way that they could have every book that had ever been published in Morgan's nursery. Children needed to be read to, to have something that would feed their imagination, it was better for them. He would be entertaining Morgan and helping ensure that his little brother had a profitable future.

"A bookstore?" Maxie stopped outside the bookstore. She hadn't really ever gone in. Whenever Georgie got that glint in her eye, Maxie knew that her sister would be away for a few hours, looking at the various books that were in stock, the new ones, the old ones, and especially the ones on sale. "You're going to get him a book? He can't read."

"But we can read to him. It's perfect, Maxie. He loves stories… I think. They put him to sleep."

"Reading puts me to sleep, too, doesn't mean that I like it."

"Michael loves to read… hopefully it's a trait that Morgan acquired." Unless it was a Quatermaine trait, which it could have well been. They were all doctors and educated people, except for the younger generations. Still, it was the best idea that Damian had. "Are you going to come in?"

"I'll… stay out here, thanks," Maxie was uneasy. The phobia of bookstores was not one that died easily. It was a longstanding fear. Books were mean to her. They made her head hurt.

Some time later, the young man made his way out of the bookstore, a bag in hand. It wasn't a very big bag, but the book had a few hundred pages of different stories in it. Hopefully it would be enough to interest the boy, well into his more formidable years. Maxie was sitting on a bench, her eyes slowly closing.

Sitting down next to her, he patted her on the leg, "I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"

"No, I'm just tired right now. I guess all the walking we did finally caught up to me when I sat down. It might not be a good idea for you to plant yourself on the bench. Maybe it's possessed."

"Maxie, are you hungry? I know you didn't eat breakfast, and it's a little after lunch. We could get something to eat at the food court, get you your energy back."

"That's a good idea," Maxie nodded. Her stomach was starting to grumble. Hopefully it was so low that only she could hear. "I could use some caffeine."

"Come on, we'll look around while we get over there, hopefully we'll find some gift ideas along the way."

Food Court-

As if it were a surprise to anyone, the food court was just as crowded, if not more so, as the stores in the mall. There were multiple stores, some of which had similar products, but there was only one food court.

They had to fight in order to get themselves a table, but they did get one, and they sat down. Damian laughed slightly. "You know… it's funny."

"What is?"

"I was just thinking about the time that you helped me out when Michael was in the hospital. It was the first time that I met Georgie… remember?"

"My sister was intent on making it so I wished her dead!" Maxie laughed as she doused her salad in ranch dressing. "But, she knew something before I did."

"What was that?"

"That I was in love with you before I knew it. Georgie's really good at figuring those things out, I guess. She wasn't so good at it when Dillon wanted her, but she's better at dealing with other people's problems than her own."

"Georgie's a great person, Maxie. You're lucky to have her as a sister, I'm lucky to have her as a friend, and Dillon's lucky to have her as a girlfriend."

"You two seem to be the type of people that I would picture being together," Maxie admitted. "You're both really smart, like to read, help people out with their problems before doing anything for yourselves. You're both selfless people… as opposed to people like me."

"Do you think you're selfish, Maxie?" Damian's stare was strong and filled with concern.

"How could I not think I am?" She had done too many things in her life that had been selfish. She knew that she was a selfish individual, and she hated herself for it, but it just came to her so easily.

"I don't think you are."

"You're just saying that."

"No, I'm not," Damian repeated himself, showing the sincerity in his words. "Maxie, you might do things, might have done things, that were for your own gain and only your own again alone, but who hasn't? I've done it a few times myself. People can't get away from wanting what's best for them, it's what makes us human. We want to be happy. But that doesn't make you selfish. You've helped so many people before, you've done things to help them out before you helped yourself. You're not selfish, you're just you."

"Do you ever get tired of me telling you how much I love you?"

"No," Damian put his hand over hers, "and I will never get tired of hearing you tell me that you love me, because it makes me feel like I'm doing something right in the world. How about you, do you ever get tired of me telling you how much I love you?"

"Of course not…"

"Thank you, for coming with me today. I couldn't have even begun to try and shop for my family and friends without you."

"You're not shopping for me?"

"Not with you right here, Maxie. Trust me, I'll get you something good."

"You'd better… I know where you live."

"I'll inform Max that you're on the rampage for my blood… he'll protect me."

"Max doesn't scare easily, but I have a feeling that if I were really mad, I would scare him." Maxie laughed and winked at her boyfriend. She knew that he would pick something good for her, but that didn't mean that she would pick something good for him. She still had no idea what she was going to get.


	25. On The Eve

Afternoon, Christmas Eve, Corinthos Household-

The passage of time was something that couldn't be stopped, not by anyone. With each passing day, Christmas came ever closer, ending with the eve of the day in question. Shopping had been done by all the parties involved, gifts had been purchased, wrapped or bagged, and placed under trees, or kept hidden for the just right moment. The yearly grind of battling the mall demons was over, and victory had been won by the forces of good.

Jason had not yet gotten sick of the Christmas tree that protruded in his home. Although the rest of the house remained the same as it had always been, the tree stayed, complete with the ornaments that Jason had purchased. Every time one would look at Jason, Courtney or Dillon looking at the tree it was easy to see that they had something in their eye, that little bit of Christmas spirit that only the tree could give. It was all because of a boy's desire to have a holiday like he had given up that they could have such things.

Sonny kept his word, returning the evening that he left. He remained tightlipped about where he had gone and why, but he constantly said that it was something that he just needed to do. Nobody was going to pry further into Sonny's business than he allowed, nobody would try. There were theories, of course. Everyone had their theories about what Sonny did whenever he needed to go away alone. Some thought he was going to secure a business deal in another part of the country, or that he just went to check up on one of his many assets. What was odd was that even Jason didn't know, and Sonny tended to tell Jason everything that happened in his life, they were best friends, they were confidants.

As with most small children, each day that inched closer towards the day of festive present opening became more nerve wracking than the last. Michael was one of those children. He loved Christmas. Not just because of the presents, but because of the way that his family came together, something that it rarely ever did except around this time of year. Michael was a boy who loved his family and who wanted them all to be happy, but it seemed to be something that was rare, if it ever happened. They would act happy around him most of the time, but he knew that there was something that they were hiding from him. He was still too young to know exactly what that was, but deep down, he had an idea.

Now that it was Christmas Eve, though, Michael's anticipation went up the wall. All of the gifts were under the tree, which had still yet to be decorated, but it had been brought into the house during the morning. When Michael woke up, he knew that it was there. He could smell the pine. He loved the tree, it was gorgeous, although he did wonder if it was a boy or a girl. That question had long since been shelved as he looked at each of the presents, trying to find the ones that were his and hopefully get some guesses as to what was beneath the wrapping paper.

"You know that shaking the gifts only makes the waiting longer, kid," Damian came in from his room, laughing silently to himself as he watched the antics of his little brother. Michael was so innocent and pure, something that would be stripped away from him against his will, as it had been done to everyone before him. Michael still had his youth, and Damian hoped that his brother enjoyed it while it lasted. It never did last long enough.

"I can't wait to open them!" Michael stopped looking at the presents and focused on the boy that was speaking to him. "Look at all these boxes! Some of them are for you. Do you want to see what they look like?"

"I'll pass, thanks," Damian walked over and sat down on the bottom stair. He could see the many presents that were in front of his face. The multi-colored wrapping paper that shined under the light of the house. Maxie had wrapped all his gifts. She had watched him try to wrap the book that he had gotten Morgan, but when she saw what the end product was she decided that it would be best to put her boyfriend out of his misery. Boys just didn't have the gift wrapping gene.

"Are you happy?" Michael took a seat right next to his big brother. There was something about Damian that made Michael always wonder about if he was happy or not. There were times that he knew his big brother was in fact happy, but there were many other times when he thought Damian wasn't, or he just couldn't tell.

"What do you mean? I'm here with you and Morgan and the rest of our family, of course I'm happy…"

"It's just… everyone else is smiling and laughing and having fun, but I haven't seen you do that a lot. Even when we were decorating Uncle Jason's tree, there was something about you that made you look sad."

"Thanks for looking out for me, Michael, but I'll be fine," Damian did appreciate the care that he received from his little brother, and it touched him to know that Michael was always trying to do something to make his life easier, but Michael didn't have the power to erase the past. "I just don't get into the holiday spirit like other people. I did enjoy myself when I was decorating the tree, and I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with you and everyone else tonight… after the party at the hospital."

"You're not going to be here all day?" Michael's attitude shifted to slight disappointment. It was Christmas Eve, family needed to be around each other. He knew about the party at the hospital, but he wasn't going to go, his parents weren't, either. They seemed to never go.

"I'm only going to be gone a few hours, Michael," Damian couldn't feel guilty about leaving Michael alone. He loved the boy dearly, but he couldn't and wouldn't live his life around someone else. "I'll be back before you start decorating the Christmas tree and I'll be here for the dinner, but I need to be at the hospital for a little while."

"Why?"

"Because Maxie's going to be there, and she's going to be doing something that means a lot to her and to a lot of other people as well. Michael, when you love someone and they're doing something that's important to them you have to support them as much as you can, even when it's something that you don't necessarily agree with or like. Everyone has the right to be their own person and to make their own choices. Besides, she's my girlfriend, I want to spend Christmas Eve with her as much as I want to spend Christmas Eve with my family. I have to give her the present that I bought."

"What'd you get her?"

"Something special, two things, actually."

"Do you think that she'll like what you got her?"

"I really hope so," he chuckled uneasily. The thought had crossed his mind that she would hate what he picked out, but it wasn't until someone else said the same thing that h thought about it actually happening. When he saw what he bought for her at the store he knew that it was something that he wanted to get her, but it wasn't the only thing. The material present was what he feared, the present that came from his heart was decidedly not. She would love that second gift regardless. "I hope everyone likes what I got them. Be thankful, Michael, you've still got a few years ahead of you before you have to start thinking about what you're going to get other people for Christmas."

"Did you want a present from me?" Michael hadn't bought gifts for anyone, he didn't think that he needed to. Maybe he did.

"No, not at all," Damian stood and leaned against the back of the stairs. "Truthfully, Michael, I wouldn't mind if I didn't get any gifts at all, from anyone."

"But it's Christmas…"

"Yeah, I know that, but Christmas means more than just presents…"

"It's about people coming together and being extra nice to each other, isn't it?" Michael had learned about the 'spirit' of Christmas, he'd watched the cartoon specials a few times before.

"Something like that, yeah," Damian grinned. Kids. They were something else. "I got what I wanted, Michael. I have a father and a family that I wouldn't have known about if I would have never have come here. That's really the only present I need."

"So you won't open any gifts then?"

"No, I will, because it would be rude to not accept the gifts that people got for me, but I wouldn't mind not having gifts, everything I need is around me, or at least in Port Charles… well, almost everything."

"Michael," Carly came down from her room. She was actually listening in on some of their conversation. She liked the way that Damian gave Michael his full attention. Sometimes it was easy to just brush the boy off with some pathetic excuse for an answer and chalk it up to the fact that Michael was young and that he wouldn't understand. Damian wasn't like that. He would try to break it down for Michael into the smallest pieces so that Michael could somehow try and digest the information. The only other person who did it as much as Damian did was Jason. "Why don't you go and see if you can catch a nap?"

"But I'm not tired!" Michael protested. A nap? On Christmas Eve? Was his mother insane? There were many who would claim that she was, but he didn't know that.

"You might be tired later on tonight, sweetie. You know we like to stay up as late as we can on Christmas Eve while we decorate the tree and open presents and just be family together. If you take a nap now, then you'll be able to hang out with everyone even longer."

"Your mom has a point, Michael. When you go to sleep tonight we're not going to wake you up, we're just going to let you get some sleep. The longer you stay up by yourself, the better it is for you." Damian glanced over at his step-mother, showing that he supported her idea wholeheartedly.

"Will you still be here when I wake up?" Michael asked. "Or will you be gone?"

"I don't really know. Michael, you know that if you ever need to speak with me I have my cell phone… if you find anyone of the adults, even Leticia and Max, they'll gladly call me for you and then you can talk to me, and if you need me I'm going to come back as soon as I can."

Michael stood from his place on the stairs and wrapped his hands around his brother's waist. "If I don't see you when I wake up, have fun at the hospital party."

"Thanks, kid. Now go enjoy your nap."

"Sleep well, Mister Man," Carly ruffled his hair as he walked past her, leaving her alone with her step-son. There was always going to be that uncomfortable silence that existed when the two of them were forced to be alone. They started out with so much animosity towards one another that it wasn't something that was going to be forgotten overnight. She didn't hate him anymore, and she was certain that he never truly hated her, but they were hardly friends. Still, Carly knew when it was the time to suck up her pride and speak to the boy that had become a part of her life as much as he had anyone else's. "I want to thank you…"

"For what?" Damian didn't know why Carly would even think about thanking him. He never said anything to her, never did anything to get thanks from her, at least not from where he was standing.

"For being a good big brother to my sons. Even when I didn't want you around my husband… around me… I knew that you cared about Michael and Morgan and that they could depend on you. It was something that I didn't want to admit to anyone, especially myself, but now that I've gotten used to you being around I know that I can trust you with them."

"You can trust me with a lot more than just your children, Carly," Damian walked down the stairs. "I don't like the distance that we have between us. I know why it's there, I know that asking for everyone to just start over would be asking for too much, but I didn't ask to be born into this family, Carly. I didn't ask to have Sonny Corinthos as my father. I'm truly thankful that I do, that I have the chance to be a member of this family, but we're all just victims of circumstance here."

"Give me some time, please," Carly walked behind her step-son. "It takes me awhile to get used to new people in my life. Ask Bobbie. Even after all the hate and anger faded, it still took me a long time before I thought that I could truly trust her."

"I'll give you all the time that you need, Carly, but I want to do something to make it easier."

"There's nothing that you can do, Damian," Carly knew that the problem was entirely inside of her, or at least she thought she did. "This is something that I need to deal with by myself."

"Why don't I give you your Christmas present early, Carly?"

"What?"

"You heard me. Close your eyes." He waited until she listened to his instruction and he took her hand. "Now, follow me."

"Where are we going?" Carly was blind, trusting a boy that she didn't really get along with. He could push her over the terrace if he wanted.

"You'll see…" Damian led her to his room and shut the door softly. Nobody could hear or see anything. This was a moment between the two of them. "Open your eyes, Carly."

As her vision returned, Carly looked around and saw that she was in his room. "You're not my son, Damian, I don't think of a clean room as a present."

"That's not the present, Carly," Damian sat her down on his bed, taking a seat on the computer chair and staring directly at her. "I know…"


	26. Talk It Out

It took everything that Carly had inside of her to not simultaneously faint and try and find a way out of the room. But then she realized something. What did he know? There was no way that he could have known about that. Lorenzo was dead. She and Lorenzo were the only two people who had been there that day, nobody else could have overheard their conversation.

Sucking in her fears, fooling herself into thinking that everything would be all right, Carly adjusted well to the shift. "What do you mean, you know?"

"I think you know what I know, Carly," Damian knew that she was thinking about what he had said. Thinking that he knew what he did know, but trying to fool herself into thinking that he didn't know or that he was talking about something else. "I know that you wanted Alcazar to get rid of me."

"That's a lie!" Carly got up and headed for the door.

"I don't think it is, Carly. In fact, I know it isn't," Damian, who was closer to the door than she was, stood in front of the door, barring her path.

Carly's world slowly began to become even bleaker. The secret that she had strived to keep hidden from everyone was not a secret anymore. And the only person who could have done the most damage by telling people about that secret was the only one other than she who knew about it. She never even told Jason or Courtney, two people who she trusted more than anyone else, because she knew that what she had done was something that was worse than anything else she had ever tried to before. She was trying to push a child out of her husband's life, his own child. "Get out of the way, Damian."

"I'm not moving, Carly, not until we talk about this…"

"What's there to talk about?" She asked spitefully. "You're delusional and you're trying to think up ways to get back at me for all the horrible things that I did to you when we were enemies. Why are you doing this to me now, huh? Now that we're finally… well, I don't know what we are, but we're better now than we ever were before, why are you trying to destroy that?"

"You think I'm telling you this so that I can hold it against you for the rest of your life?"

"Why else would you be telling me this? Not that I'm admitting that it's true, mind you, but why else would you say something like that unless you were going to hold it against me? It's the exact same thing that I would do."

"But I'm not you, nor am I your child…"

"Well thank you for pointing that out, Damian!" Carly tried to force her way through the boy, but she couldn't. "You know, it's not like I don't have to live with the fact that Sonny had a child with someone that wasn't me every day of my life, but you just had to say something about it, didn't you?"

"My dad had a life before you even moved to Port Charles, Carly. You know that, we all know that, but he didn't love my mother. Stop thinking that he did. I wasn't conceived out of some passionate love, believe me, I wish I were, but that's just not true."

"You just had to do this on Christmas Eve, too, didn't you? You had to find some way to ruin my holiday! You're right, this is something that I would never do… which means that you're worse than I could have ever been."

"Carly, would you just listen to me for a moment, please!"

"I have nothing to say to you!" Carly yelled as she continued to struggle against her step-son, the tears flowing down her cheeks. She knew that she was wrong. She knew that she had done something horrible, but she had always thought that she would be the only one who would have to live with that guilt. She was prepared to go to her grave with that secret.

"I have something to say to you…"

"I think you've said enough already!" She snapped back, finally giving up and just standing there, shaking.

"Carly," Damian gently put his hands on her arms, "I forgive you."

The shock of her secret coming out was wiped clean and instead a different kind of shock came over her. What did he mean? He forgave her? "What do you forgive me for?"

"For everything, really," Damian moved out of the way, no longer blocking the doorway. "I'm not going to hold you in here against your will. If you want to leave, you can, but I for one would really like to talk about this, now. I've watched you be eaten up by your guilt over what happened every single time you look at me, I want it to stop."

Carly headed towards the door, putting her hand on the knob. She was going to leave. She didn't want to be around him. She didn't want to talk about what she had done. But she couldn't just leave. He had forgiven her… she would have never forgiven him if he had been the one to do what she had done. Moving her hand away from the doorknob, Carly leaned against the wall and sighed, "I'm not happy about the decisions that I made when you came here, Damian. And what's worse is that I know I would have done the same thing if I was given a chance. I wouldn't change anything. I couldn't change anything. That's just the way that I am. I don't like it when people might be a threat to my family, to the people that I love."

"I was never a threat to anyone…"

"I know that now, but when you first got here what was I supposed to think? Everyone thought that you were here to get something from your father. The way you acted towards him… the snide remarks, the glares. Nobody thought that you weren't going to try and harm him in some way." Carly was forced to confront the feelings that she thought she would never have to make public, it wasn't something that she enjoyed. "So, yes, I went to the one person who I thought could help me, could help my family by finding a way to get rid of you. But, I swear, Damian, I swear on everything that I have inside of me that I never wanted you dead!"

"I know, Carly, that's why I'm able to forgive you. Because I know that you feel horrible about what you did and that you wish you hadn't have done it. I know that Lorenzo Alcazar took your simple little desire and turned it into something malicious, something that suited him more than it suited you."

"I was so angry at him," Carly sunk against the wall, sitting on the floor. "And it wasn't just because of what he did putting Michael in danger. By that time I had gotten used to you… or at least somewhat used to you. I didn't have that anger in me about what you could try to do to us anymore, but I still wasn't completely comfortable with you around, and I won't lie, I'm still not completely comfortable with you around."

"The only one who can decide when they're fully accepting of someone else is that person," he looked at his step-mother, as if he was looking at her in a different light. As if he was seeing Carly without everything that she had put up to block her feelings, her emotions. Her vulnerability. "When you feel comfortable with me being around, Carly, it'll be because you're finally ready to accept everything. I don't care how long it takes, but I hope it comes to you some day."

"You know why I was so angry at Lorenzo? Because, even though I wanted you to leave, I wanted you to be the one who decided to leave, even if it was because of something that I did. If you made the choice to leave Port Charles, to get out of our lives, then Sonny would have accepted it. He would have been heartbroken, but he would have moved on with his life. He might not have ever forgotten about you, but he could find a way to keep on living. If you had died, Damian, that would have destroyed Sonny. It would have eaten him up inside and it would have killed him. That's why I never wanted you dead, because of what it would do to your father."

"The fact that I'm a person with the basic right to live my life as I see fit didn't have anything to do with it? You just wanted to keep me alive for dad's sake?"

"Like I said… I'm not proud of the decisions that I made when you first came into our lives… but, yes, everything that I did was to protect your father, my husband, from feeling broken inside…"

"We're more alike than you think, you know that?"

"What do you mean?" She wasn't sure she was going to like the comparisons that Damian made to her life and to his life, as far as she knew they didn't have anything in common aside from the love that they felt for their family.

"I couldn't leave Port Charles, even if I hated dad, because by then I had already become someone that Michael adored. I never had the chance to be a brother before I moved here, Carly. I didn't even know that I wanted to be one, it never crossed my mind. For twenty years, I was the only child, but that changed in a matter of minutes. Something just clicked inside of me when I saw the admiration in your son's eyes. I knew that I couldn't just leave him. Even if I wasn't able to be around him all the time I knew that I needed to find a way to be there for him when he needed me, and in order to do that I had to make sure that I stayed around, no matter how I felt about everyone else."

"So, what you're saying is that, no matter what, you would have never left Port Charles? Even if you couldn't have repaired your relationship with Sonny?"

"Exactly," Damian was glad that she understood. Sometimes it took Carly a bit to grasp certain concepts, especially when they came from his mouth. She wasn't his favorite person, usually she would do her best to ignore him. "And I think you would have done the same thing, Carly. If you and dad weren't together, even if you wanted to leave Port Charles, you wouldn't. Not if your children made such a strong connection to their father. That's where our similarities lie, in our ability to put aside our own feelings, even the strong hatred, if it means doing something that benefits the people that we care about. That's why I did this…"

"Did what?"

"Told you about what I knew. Carly, regardless of your feelings towards me, even if they're not hate, you're important to me now. You're not my favorite person on the planet, and probably never will be, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you on some strange level that I can't even hope to explain or understand. You are a member of my family, though, you're important to everyone else that I care about, and to me. I couldn't let you keep on beating yourself up because you didn't think that you could at least talk to someone about what happened, about what you did and about how it all went out of proportion. What happened to me, the accident, it wasn't your fault. You wanted to get rid of me, but you never once said that I needed to be killed." Damian handed her a box of tissue to wipe her tears. "And that's why I told you today, Carly, of all days, because I couldn't think of a better present from me to you than a clear state of mind."

"Most people just buy me clothes, or jewelry…"

"Are you saying that your sanity is worth less than a diamond bracelet from Zales?"

"No, of course not," Carly laughed as she wiped her eyes. She would need to put on some more mascara. "I'm just saying that most people would keep holding this over my head. They would never tell me that they forgave me for what I did. So… thanks."

"Merry Christmas, Carly."

"You, too… I'll see you later tonight. Have fun at the hospital party, okay? If you see my mom… tell her that she's more than welcome to come here and help with the tree trimming."

"I'll pass the message along," there was a light grin on his face. He was glad that he did what he did.

Carly stood and was about to grab the door, but she stopped herself once more and just walked over to her step-son and hugged him. Without saying anything she gave her utmost thanks for the gift, something that she would have never even expected to get from anyone, least of all him. She knew how wrong she was about Damian, how she had misjudged him.

Finally walking out of his room, Carly shut the door and just stood there for a moment. The burden, at least part of the burden, had been lifted from her shoulders. She believed him. He wouldn't tell anyone. It was between the two of them, something that had been discussed and had reached a conclusion. She could stop wondering about him, about why he was looking at her the way he did. She could finally smile and actually smile with happiness.

"There you are," Sonny had spent a good few minutes looking for his wife. His fear was that she was in the kitchen, trying her hand at something that wasn't microwavable, since that was the only thing that Carly could make that would have some margin of a success rate. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"I was in there," Carly smiled, hoping that Sonny wouldn't notice the hell that she had been through, because it was over. She was fine. She was better than she had been in a long time.

"In Damian's room?" Sonny was floored. His wife? In his son's room? "Do I need to whitewash the walls to get rid of the bloodstains? You know how much I hate it when something happens to lower the value of the penthouse…"

"No, Sonny, don't worry. There wasn't any blood. He just wanted to give me his Christmas present in private…"

"Really? What'd he get you?" Before Carly could even worry about the answer that she was going to give her husband, he saw a new ring on her finger. Moving her hand up with his, he asked, "Was it this?"

It was actually something that she had seen during her recent shopping trip, something that she thought would look good on her. She hadn't found an outfit that seemed to fit with the ring until that day, but it wasn't an opportunity that she was going to waste, "Yeah… it's pretty, isn't it?"

"I guess he knew what you would want, didn't he?"

Smiling, Carly looked at the closed door, "He knew exactly what I wanted."


	27. The Exchange

Early Evening, Port Charles Docks-

She loved to look out at the ocean from the docks. To just watch the way that the waves would curl. It made her feel like there was something that she couldn't even begin to fathom, and she was okay with that. She could stand there the whole night if it were possible. But it wasn't. Not only did Maxie have to parade around in an outfit that she hated, no matter how much good it did for the children, but she wanted to do something with her boyfriend before that. They wouldn't be able to wake up together on Christmas morning. They wouldn't be able to open the presents that they had gotten one another, so that was something that they needed to do in the evening, but it wasn't the only thing.

"As requested, I'm here…"

She heard his voice and she stopped staring at the waves to look at him. She had spent so much time thinking about what had happened to him as a child, what had destroyed his faith in the holiday, and she had cried. But she wouldn't cry in front of him because that would only make things worse. He would hate that his pain had caused her even more pain, she knew that. "You make it seem like you don't want to be here with me…"

"Now why would you think that?" He walked closer to her and scooped her up in his arms. "I could never ignore you wanting to be around me, Maxie. That would just be mean. Besides, it's Christmas Eve. We deserve to spend some time together."

"How… how are you doing with everything?" It was a loaded question. She knew it. It was a question that he didn't really have to answer if he didn't feel comfortable with telling her, but there was no harm in asking. He had told her what had made him so somber around Christmas, so why wouldn't he tell her how he was feeling around that time?

"I think I can manage to watch one of those old claymation specials from the sixties without wanting to throw something at the television. It's a vast improvement…"

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Hide something behind a joke and a sarcastic remark," she knew that it was his defense, a frequently utilized defense on his part, but she wanted him to be honest with her, and he couldn't do that if he wasn't being honest.

"I won't lie to you, Maxie. It's never going to be something that I'll forget. It's always going to be something that comes back to me the first time I hear the beginnings of 'Silent Night,' or when I start seeing the people with their houses that are all decorated for the holiday. But it's also going to get easier. I've managed to go seven years without her being by my side… maybe, what I was looking for was something to fill that void."

"Do you think you've found something that will?" Maxie sat on one of the posts that kept the bridge up, but she failed to notice that it was slick with ice, and the weight that she had was enough to cause her to slide.

Before she could fall into the murky water that would cause her to freeze, she was gripped by the strong arms of the man that she loved. "Well, I never had to save my mom from slipping into the ocean depths, but, like I said, I'm from California, the only time we ever see ice is when we open our freezers."

Maxie laughed, mostly at her own stupidity. But she wasn't going to be happy if she slipped into the water. She hated it when she got wet, unless she planned on getting wet. She hadn't planned on getting wet any time soon. "I should have been watching where I was sitting."

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes, you're from California. You've pointed that out several times in the past few days. It's becoming your trademark…"

"Maxie…" Damian turned around. "You don't get what I said, do you? I was looking for someone to give me something like what I had with my mother. Something that might be similar, but can never be the same… and you give me that. A part of the reason that this isn't as hard as it has been for me in the past, a big part of the reason, is because of you. I'm sure that Michael and the rest of my family have helped the cause, too, but my relationship with you is the one thing that has helped me deal with my animosity towards the holiday best."

"I just wanted to help." She was touched that she meant that much to him. She knew that she meant something to him, but to be compared to his mother, that was an honor because she knew how vaunted Ana-Maria was in Damian's eyes. For him to even compare the two on the smallest of levels was something that she couldn't have dreamed about.

"And you did, more than you know," he saw a few people walking by, dressed in Santa Hats. "See? I'm not ranting about their choice of décor."

"You know… if you don't want to go to the hospital party, Damian, I won't force you to go. I know how much you don't like being around a crowd of people."

"It's for a good cause, and I already said that I would go."

"I wouldn't hold it against you if you changed your mind…"

"Maxie, don't worry about it, I can handle it. This is important to a lot of people that I care about. You, Georgie, Bobbie, Elizabeth and that's not even counting all the kids that are finally going to have something that they can smile about." Damian paused for a second, "Wait a minute. This isn't some final plea for me not to go so I don't see you in that little elf getup, is it?"

"Of course not…" she didn't want him to see her in the outfit, but that wasn't why she made the offer. It was because she didn't want him to deal with emotions that he would have rather ignored. A part of her didn't want him to be a downer, to ruin other people's holidays, but she saw the way that he acted, he tried his hardest to make sure that other people had a good time even when he was miserable.

"Is that what's in the bag that you're carrying?" Damian's index finger pointed at the bag that was in her hand.

"No!"

"Come on, let me see!" Damian didn't believe her, he wanted to see the outfit. "I promise that I won't make fun of you, even when you're in the outfit."

"You'd better not!" She grinned. "But, really, I swear, this isn't the outfit that you want to see me in so much…"

"Then what is it?" He was curious.

"Would you believe that it's your Christmas present?" She was going to wait a little while, but if he was so curious about the bag, she wasn't going to try and hide it from him.

"Is it really? Because, I have your gift, too."

"Do you want to exchange them now?"

"I don't know…"

"Come on!" Maxie put the bag out, "I want to see what you got me! I can't wait!"

"You're going to be waiting…"

"No way!" She started feeling around his jacket, looking for the present. Unlike hers, his present to her wasn't as obvious as being placed in a box.

"You're not even reaching in the right place, Maxie," Damian took her hand and lowered it, effectively ending her misguided attempt at search and seizure. Damian reached under his jacket and pulled out a concealed box. "See? You wouldn't have found it." He placed the box in front of her eyes, "Go ahead, Maxie. It's Christmas, this is your gift. Open it."

Maxie took the box gingerly. She didn't want to damage something that she would no doubt cherish for the rest of her life. A gift from him. From the boy that she loved, the boy who loved her and understood her. That was a gift in itself, but he still got her something. Opening the box, she gasped when she saw the glittering jewels that adorned her gift. "Damian… this… is too much…"

"My father gave me money to buy things for the people that I love, it only seems fitting that I spend the most money on the person that I love the most, doesn't it?"

"I can't accept this…"

"Yes, you can, and you will. Maxie, when I saw this bracelet, I thought about you. I thought about how you would look with it on. It's modest, don't you think? There were some bracelets that you would need sunglasses to look at, but I didn't want to put you in danger of being mugged. See?" Damian took it out, giving Maxie a better scope of the present. "It's silver, with a few diamonds running around it." Putting it around her wrist, he saw that it looked exactly like he thought it would look. Beautiful. "Please, say you'll keep it."

"I love it…" she turned away.

"What's wrong?"

"This must have cost you so much money… what I got you, it doesn't even compare…"

"Maxie, my father has more money than he could ever hope to spend, so he gave me some… I know you don't have the same luxury, I know that money isn't something that you can just throw around like I can, that makes your gift even more special. Please, anything that you get me is going to be perfect. I promise."

"You probably won't be saying that when you see it…" Maxie stretched her hand out and held the bag out to him.

Damian, sad that she wasn't as happy as he thought she would be, took the content of the bag out. "It's… sheet music."

"For the piano. It doesn't sparkle. I could throw some glitter on it, but that would just mess it up."

"Where'd you get this?"

"At that store that you got Morgan's present. I thought about it… and I went in."

"You went in to the bookstore?"

"Don't make fun of me right now, Damian, please!"

"Maxie," Damian wrapped his arms around Maxie, holding the book in his hands, "I love this present."

Maxie scoffed. "You're just saying that to make me feel better. How could you love something like that when you gave me something that is worth so much?"

"Presents aren't about the money that they cost, Maxie. They're about the feelings that come from them. You really thought about getting me this book, didn't you? You even went into a store that you have well established disdain towards, just because you knew that it would have what you wanted to get me. That little gesture, Maxie, that makes it worth more than anything that I could have bought you from any jewelry store. But it's not the only present that I got you."

"Please tell me you didn't get me earrings…" Maxie should have been happier than she had ever been before. She loved getting jewelry. She loved things that she could wear that looked good on her. What teenager didn't?

"I don't think that you can put this on your ear. Well, you could," Damian took the other present out, "but it would look really bad."

"An envelope?" Maxie wondered what was inside. Was it more money? Was he trying to buy her love? Didn't he know that he didn't need to buy her love.

"Open it…"

Hesitantly, Maxie took the envelope and opened it. She saw a letter, and she began to read it. Her face lit up a moment later, "It's from Zander!"

Damian knew that she would love the letter. "I managed to convince my dad to track him down. I know how worried you were about him. I didn't read it, whatever is inside that letter, Maxie, is meant for you and you alone."

"Why did you do this?" She wondered as her eyes glanced down the letter. He was doing okay. The pain from the bullet that he took to save her life had already gone away, and he was starting to like his new life.

"Because I know how much you care about him, and I wanted to give you something that money couldn't buy… see? The value of a gift doesn't matter, Maxie. That letter cost… what… 37 cents, the bracelet was considerably more, and which do you favor?"

"The letter… but I love the bracelet, too." Maxie was distracted by the sound of Damian's phone going off.

Damian picked it up, his caller ID showing the person who was calling. "Uncle Ric?"

"Could you come to my apartment, please?" Ric's voice was heard through the phone. "I need some help, and you're the only one I can depend on."


	28. Strange Requests

"What's this about?" Damian couldn't sense any real urgency in his Uncle's voice, but if Ric was in danger, if Ric was just trying to keep himself from sounding hurt and he was, of course Damian would go.

"It's… really something that you should probably be here to see instead of having me tell you over the phone," Ric was sitting on his couch. He and Elizabeth hadn't spoken since the time she gave her impromptu visit to his house and in those days he was miserable.

"Are you okay?"

"Physically? Sure. Emotionally…" Ric let his head hang low, "I'm not so sure about that one. Look, just come, please…" Ric hung up the phone before his nephew could ask any more questions. Everything would be answered if Damian came. Ric really hoped that he would come. Ric had finally convinced himself that he had a member of his family that he could count on, he didn't want to have that dream shattered. Sulking on the couch, Ric lowered his head, "Elizabeth… I hope I can make everything right between us again."

"What's wrong with Ric?" Maxie was observing the conversation, but hadn't heard anything that was said between the two. She knew that the way Damian was acting and the questions he asked were hints that something may have been amiss. She still didn't care much for Ric Lansing, but he was Damian's Uncle, and she knew how much Damian did care for the man.

"I don't know," Damian closed the phone, stunned. If there was something, anything, that he had learned from spending time with Ric Lansing it was that he never tried to sound… desperate. But that was the tone of his voice, that was what was implied by the way that he spoke. He was looking for help of some kind, and the only one who Ric felt he could turn to was Damian himself. "I don't even know if I should go…"

"You wouldn't forgive yourself if you didn't go, Damian," Maxie informed him. "A member of your family is asking for your help…"

"But what if it's something that I can't help him with, Maxie? What if… I don't know, what if he wants me to try and find a way to help him put my dad in prison? I can't do that, not even for him." Damian knew the grudge that existed between the brothers, everyone did. It was unspoken of most of the time, but whenever they were together, it was felt nonetheless. He also knew that grudges didn't die quickly, especially ones that were lifelong.

"Then you'll have to tell him that you can't help him with that. But if you don't go… what if you're wrong? What if he's hurt right now…"

"He'd call the hospital if he were hurt, Maxie. Uncle Ric's not stupid… he's probably one of the smartest people that I know." Lawyers were educated, especially the ones who got educated at the ivy league schools.

"There are many ways a person can get hurt, Damian. Physically is just one of them, it's not even the worst way. Of all people, I thought you would know that. What if his heart is screaming in anguish about something? Maybe he feels guilty about the way he's treated your family and he wants to apologize, but he knows that he can't do it to Sonny or Carly or anyone else because they won't believe him. They wouldn't even take the time to listen to him. Most people who know what he's done would make the same decision. But you… you're different."

"I don't know if I would believe him either," Damian would want to believe whatever Ric would say to him, but that didn't mean that he would believe the man. Old habits died hard.

"But you would at least listen to him, and that's something that Ric does appreciate. If he didn't value you so much as a person in his life, Damian, he would have never, ever helped get you out of the mess that Scott Baldwin tried to get you into." It was a painful time in their lives, both as individuals, but especially as a couple. It was the first time that they had a strain in their relationship, and it was still there. Maxie understood why Damian had never told her everything about what happened on that night, quite possibly at the very spot where they were, but she wished he could. She smiled at him, "Your mind was made up the second he asked for your help, the only one you're trying to fool is yourself. Go."

Damian knew she was right. Maxie tended to be right, at least when it came to him. People thought that she wasn't an intelligent person because of the way that she had done things when she was growing up, but those were choices that she made, bad ones, they didn't reflect on her smarts. "I'll go straight to the hospital after I finish doing… whatever it is that he wants me to do. I won't miss this night, your night, for anyone, Maxie, not even my family." Damian knew better than to ask her to come with him. Even if she didn't have plans that required her to be at the hospital, she didn't like Ric, and Ric probably wouldn't have spoken to either of them if he came with anyone. Well, maybe Sonny, but Damian knew better than to expect his father, of all people, to come to Ric's aid. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek before pulling away, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Maxie watched as he walked away from her. He had so many commitments, but she knew that he would always make time for her, even when his life was in uproar, his devotion to her was one of the strongest things he had.

Ric Lansing's Apartment-

He didn't know why he did it, but he stood outside of the door for a good minute before he got the courage to even knock on the door. It was like he was still trying to talk himself out of going inside, out of helping someone who he did think of as a member of his family, who he would gladly do whatever he could do to help them if they needed it. But it was Ric… and something about Ric was just so intimidating that it made even Damian cautious.

But what if Maxie was right? What if he was just looking for someone to talk to? Someone to express his grief over? If he didn't have someone that he could speak to, what would he do? What if Damian picked up the newspaper on Christmas Morning to see an article about how the District Attorney killed himself? The guilt would eat at Damian, and he wasn't going to risk that.

"Uncle Ric?" Damian called out as he knocked on the door. "It's me… are you in there?"

"Door's open."

Damian noticed how feeble the voice sounded, like he was worn out. The situation was starting to get scary. When Damian opened the door he saw Ric on the couch. It was clear that was where he had spent most of, if not all, his time since… given the stubble on Ric's face, at least two days prior. He wasn't even dressed in one of his suits, which was shocking because Damian had never seen Ric wearing anything else.

"You came," Ric looked over. "Thank you."

"Are you all right?" Damian walked into the house from the doorway and got a closer inspection at Ric. "Did you get the flu or something?"

"No…"

"No to what? Being all right, or getting the flu?"

"Both."

"You need to tell me what's wrong with you, Uncle Ric. I can't help you unless I know what is wrong. And I want to help you. Believe me, I want to help you." Given the way that Ric looked, it was highly unlikely that getting revenge on Sonny was a priority. If anything, bathing should have been high on the list.

"Why do I ruin everything in my life?" Ric asked, although, given the question, it was probably more of a question he was asking himself rather than the young man that was next to him. "Every time I have something good happen to me I find some way to mess it all up. I must have some sort of complex about me. You're going to be a doctor… tell me what's wrong with me."

"That's not something that I can tell you," Damian shook his head. "I'm going to be a medical doctor, Uncle Ric, not a psychologist."

"So now you think I need to see a shrink?"

"No, of course not. It's just that you asked me to tell you what was wrong with you and I can't do it because it's not something that I'm trained to do, nor will I be trained to do it. But you're still not helping me find out what's wrong with you, Uncle Ric. What did you need me to help you with?"

"Decorating…"

"What?" Damian wasn't sure he understood the answer to the question. Decorating what?

"Elizabeth… she tried to put me in the Christmas spirit, but I… I don't know, I just didn't want to be festive…"

"I can relate, believe me," Damian looked around and saw the box of Christmas decorations. "Why can't you do this yourself? Don't tell me you don't know how to use a hammer…"

"I just can't," Ric admitted. "I don't know, these things mean something to Elizabeth, and I don't want to ruin them any more than I already have. I've tried to put them up. I've taken them out of the box, put them on the table… but I can't do it, because I know that something will happen. With my luck, I'll break each and every one of them, and then she'll hate me even more than she already does."

"What… what makes you think that Elizabeth hates you?" Even when she was angry at him, Damian never thought she could ever hate him.

"She hasn't even called or anything since she brought those… I really hurt her, and I didn't mean to."

"Why haven't you tried to tell her that yourself, Uncle Ric? You can call her, or find her, or do something…"

"What makes you think she'll believe me?"

"She loves you, she'll believe you," Damian could see why Ric was acting the way he was. He was dealing with a broken heart. Something that no science could cure. "Look… why don't I make you a deal?"

"I'm the district attorney, I'm the one who makes deals…"

"You don't look like much of a D.A. right now, unless it's pajama day down at city hall… wait, it's Christmas Eve, they're not even open today, are they? Now, here's the deal, you can take it, or you can just sit there for another few days, grow a beard, and quite possibly end up with the couch attached to your ass… Elizabeth is going to be at the hospital party tonight, Uncle Ric. In fact, she's probably over there right now finishing up with the preparations. Now, if you want to apologize for what you did, which we both know you do, if you want to make amends, which we both know you do, then you're going to have to get up off that couch, get in the shower, shave, and wear something that you can go out in public with."

"What if she doesn't want to see me? What if I just make the whole evening horrible for her? I've already ruined Elizabeth's life so many times in the past, Damian, you don't even know the things that I did to her. I don't want to put her through hell again. I love her too much to do that."

"It's because you love her that you're going to agree to my idea and you're going to clean yourself up. Don't make me toss you in the shower, cold water, fully clothed, myself… because I will. I hate seeing you beat yourself up, Uncle Ric, and I'm not going to stand by and let you do that. I'll even sweeten this little deal of ours. While you're getting rid of the days of buildup on your body, I'll take these things out and put them around the house."

"Why are you doing this?" Ric asked, stunned that someone was willing to do so much just for him. Such kindness was something that Ric had never seen before, at least not from people who weren't Elizabeth.

"Because I care about you, and I care about Elizabeth, and I know how you feel about each other, so if I can do something to help both of you and help your relationship, I'm obviously going to do something about it. But if this doesn't work… then I don't know what I can do, Uncle Ric, I think she loves you, but sometimes it doesn't matter how you feel about a person, it ends up being something else. Now, get off that couch and get in the shower!"

Ric finally felt some sense of being for the first time in days. He got off the couch and nodded his appreciation to his nephew, someone who he apparently owed more than he could ever repay.

Damian waited for the door to close before he looked at the box of decorations once more. He didn't know what they were, what significance they had to Elizabeth, if any at all, but he knew that he needed to do something about making the place a little more cheery. At least it didn't have a tree, and he sure as hell wasn't going back into the forest and getting one himself. Nor was he sending Dillon, if he did, the boy might never return.


	29. Confrontations

General Hospital-

Hospitals never tried to be depressing. The fact that people were in the hospital, that there was a need for hospitals in the first place was depressing enough, they didn't need to add to that by having, say, pictures of mass destruction on the walls. But they also didn't try to be festive. Most people didn't feel like seeing bright, happy colors while they had a loved one that was slowly closing in on their final moments of life, it only made the happiness seem fake, unreal. It tended to piss people off.

But Christmas was different. Especially Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve at General Hospital was something that was special to everyone that had worked at the hospital, and even more special to those that were inside of it. For one single night, they could forget about the things that were wrong with them. They could just be happy. They would get other presents, of course, but that simple gesture of giving them the chance to be themselves was enough of a present for everyone involved.

Of course, Christmas Eve at General Hospital wouldn't have been able to be any sort of a success without the aid of the people who made it possible. At the head of that list was Elizabeth. Her vision was unique. She was an artist. While her forum was usually the canvas in which she poured her heart and soul out to create pictures of sheer beauty, an artist was someone who could see something and make it beautiful. Such was the case with the area where they would decorate for the Christmas party. Elizabeth had turned it into something that could never, ever have been thought of it wasn't for her. Fake snow that littered the ground gave the feeling of being outside. Icicle and starburst white lights made it seem like they were staring into something that was more than the rich blue curtain that was to represent the night sky.

Elizabeth had toiled with the idea since she was asked to head the development of the project shortly after Halloween. Hours upon hours of preparation could be logged onto her credit, and she did it free of charge. Her satisfaction was the fact that she finally got to work on something that was artsy, something that she didn't really get to do at Kelly's. Everything was perfect, or at least close enough to perfect where Elizabeth could convince herself that it was perfect.

There were reasons that she took the job. People knew that Elizabeth had a kind, gentle heart. That she would gladly help anyone that needed her help, but that wasn't the real reason why she felt that she needed to do what was being asked of her. That wasn't why she went above and beyond what was expected of her. Her reasons were simple. "Gram?" Elizabeth put her hand over her dear grandmother's, the very reason that she was so intent on making the day special.

"Oh, Elizabeth," Audrey Hardy smiled softly as she returned from wherever her head was. "Have I told you how much I love what you've done here? I've never seen anything that seemed to capture the spirit of Christmas as much as what you've given us this year. I know that the children will love it!"

"Well I couldn't let all those kids down on Christmas, could I?" Elizabeth could see that Audrey's mind wasn't in the holiday spirit, and she knew why. Nobody would blame a woman for thinking of her late husband after they had shared so much, both good and bad, especially during the holiday's, especially when that very husband would always be so involved with the holiday activities.

"You wouldn't let them down even if December 24th meant nothing to any of us. It could be any day of the year, Elizabeth, and you would turn it into something that's magical. You have the soul of an angel, with the ability to touch so many people in so many ways."

"Thanks, Gram," Elizabeth blushed at the comment. "Do you want some company? I know… I know that it's hard for you to do this…"

"He would want me to stay until I could no longer do it myself, Elizabeth. A Webber must be present at the holiday party, it's mandated. It meant so much to him to be able to read the story to all the children. Thankfully, Alan's managed to do a wonderful job in his stead."

"But Alan could never hope to compare… not to him," Elizabeth loved Alan Quatermaine dearly, but Alan wasn't her grandfather.

Audrey saw Lucky in the crowd and she waved to him. He returned the gesture, but she could tell that his eyes were more fixated on Elizabeth. Given the way that Elizabeth looked at him, it was obvious that the intentions weren't the same. It made Audrey very sad. "Elizabeth, you're a beautiful, wonderful girl. You deserve to be happy."

"I am happy, Gram, really," Elizabeth knew where the conversation was going, but she didn't try to stop it. She knew that there was no use in attempting to stop it.

"Really? Then why aren't you here with anyone?" Audrey knew that Ric and Elizabeth were engaging in a very volatile relationship, one that was on and then off and back on before she could even blink. Ric had broken Elizabeth's heart before. Audrey would never forgive him for that, but she wanted Elizabeth to be happy, truly happy. She just didn't know why it wasn't Lucky who could have done that for her.

"Gram… Ric knows how important this event is to me. He'll show up…" there was the hesitation in her voice that showed how unsure she was of the possibility of Ric truly showing up. She knew now how much he hated the idea of Christmas spirit, maybe he would just avoid the whole situation altogether. If he did, would she even be able to forgive him?

Elsewhere in the hospital, others gathered. All were important in their own ways, none more important than the Quatermaine family. The hospital was as much theirs as it was anyone else's. Tracy was looking around for her son. For Dillon. He had only seen her a few times, quick visits here and there before he returned to the hellhole that he called a home, with the castaway Quatermaine and AJ's ex-wife, high above in the heart of the mob world.

"So tacky…" Tracy mumbled as she looked at the way that the hospital was decorated. Before, the place had just been boring. Banal. But now, with this new change, it was something that she didn't like. Tracy didn't adjust to change well. She wasn't adjusting to losing her mother, that big change, very well. They had their differences, more than a few, but Lila was still the one who raised Tracy. The only reason that Tracy was even at the party was to honor the spirit of her mother. If she managed to see Dillon along the way, then that was just one extra bonus.

"I think that the place looks wonderful. Elizabeth did an excellent job with the decorating and she kept everything very well priced. Our budget for the event was barely touched." Monica had a rare moment where she could wander around the hospital without wearing the outfit that she usually wore. She was in a suit, a beautiful, yet simple, ash suit.

"You would. You never understood what made something look good, Monica. You lack that level of class…" Tracy's venom was apparent, as it always was.

"Funny, when we asked if you wanted to volunteer some of your precious time to help decorate for the party, you declined. You had some very colorful words when it came to that rejection, if my memory holds," Alan was standing next to his wife, looking at the seat that he would soon be sitting in and reading the book that was always read to the children on this day.

"What was it you said exactly?" Monica asked. "Ah, yes, now I remember, 'I'd sooner gouge my own eyes out with an ice pick.'"

"That would be more pleasant than looking at this atrocity. It's a mockery of the Christmas spirit!"

"How can you even claim to know what the Christmas spirit is, Tracy? Doesn't that require that you have the smallest sense of what it means to be good in you?" Monica's patience when it came to Tracy seemed to wane quickly. "I think that the Christmas spirit is encompassed in everything that Elizabeth has done for this event."

"Excuse me," Tracy blew Monica off, it was something that she was really good at. One of the many things that she had turned into an art form in her life. Her reason for leaving the tête-à-tête? She saw her son.

Dillon was waiting for Georgie to come on. In the years that they had been together he had seen her wear the same outfit time and time again. He liked the way that she looked in it, even though she hated it. Girls were like that. Then again, if he was the one that was forced to wear the outfit he wouldn't like it either.

"Merry Christmas, my darling son…"

Dillon's body froze when he heard her voice behind him. "Why is it that when you say it, it seems like it's not the same as when someone else says it?"

"Come now, Dillon, have I ever once, in all the years that we were alone together, done anything but toiled to give you the best Christmases that we could have had…"

"There aren't many good things that can be done from Hotel rooms, mom."

"Still, I made the effort, the best you could do is reciprocate and give your own mother a hug."

Dillon looked at Tracy. He didn't hate his mother. Truly, he couldn't hate his mother, even if she was one of the evilest people that he had ever known, he knew that there was something inside of her that wasn't evil. He knew that she had the same motherly instincts that everyone else had, she just didn't act on them. And she did try to give him a good Christmas. She would get the tree and everything. She was right, he owed her. Walking over, he hugged her.

Tracy gripped around him harder, silently wishing that the moment would never end. "I miss you, Dillon, I miss you so very much."

"How… how are you doing with everything?" Dillon was able to put aside his animosity towards the woman and at least try and find out how she was feeling. It was the first Christmas that Lila was gone. Even though they didn't spend Christmas with her very often, it was different. Nobody would see Lila, not anymore.

"It's hard, being without my mother. I won't lie to you, Dillon. There's a part of my soul, and I can assure you that I still have one because if I didn't I wouldn't be feeling any pain at all right now, that is gone because she's gone…"

"I'm one of the only people who wouldn't accuse you of not having a soul, mother, you know that." There were times when Dillon sincerely doubted the fact that Tracy felt anything, but he knew that she did.

"It would be easier if I had people that love me around me, to help me grieve over the tremendous loss that I've been dealt."

"You have people who love you, mom. Alan, Monica, Emily, Ned, Grandfather…"

"None of them, not even Ned, love me like you do," Tracy finally let go of Dillon. "You're my baby, Dillon. You're still the one person that I will drop everything for if you need me. How many times do you have to see me in anguish, son? How many times do I have to think about you going and living with someone else, someone who isn't me, and enjoying yourself? Do you even know how often I go into your room, sit on your bed for hours at a time and just think about all the good times that we had?"

"You made the decisions that pushed me away, mom."

"And don't you think I've paid for those mistakes enough? You might come from me, Dillon, but that doesn't mean that you're like me." Tracy could see that her pleas weren't going to make her wishes come true. Dillon wasn't coming back with her. "It's funny… this is exactly like what happened with my mother. You're as different from me as I was from her. People would always ask how a woman like Lila Quatermaine could have a child like me, and I know that people… like your girlfriend, constantly wonder how you could come from someone like me."

"I'm glad you're my mother," Dillon was slowly weakening, but he knew that it was what she wanted. He knew that no matter what, he wouldn't give her that desire that she wanted. But he felt bad nonetheless. "If anyone ever tells you that I don't love you, mom, don't believe them. I love you, I'll always love you, but that doesn't mean that I have to be controlled by you."

"I've learned!"

"Have you?" Dillon shook his head. "Tell me, mom, and don't lie to me because you might be a very good liar, but I'm the one person who you can't fool all the time and I will know that you're lying when I ask you this question: Would you change what happened between us? Would you try and keep me away from the people that I care about?"

Tracy lowered her eyes. She would try to keep her son away from the people that he associated himself with. How could she not? His girlfriend was the daughter of the police commissioner, and his best friend was the prince of crime, who had already been placed in a life-threatening position because of who he was.

"See? I knew you wouldn't be able to say that you would change. Which means that you haven't learned anything. You still want to control my life, mom, and I won't let you do it to me anymore. Look, I can't stop you from being around me while we're both here, but I'm asking you to not ruin this for me. I'm going to be here with the girl that I love, and I'm finally going to spend some time away from my family… the family that you made me run away from."

"I didn't make you choose to live with Jason!"

"Maybe not, but you made me choose, and you made me make the choice that I made!" Dillon could see Georgie was watching them, keeping her distance because she didn't feel comfortable around Tracy. Nobody did. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend some time with someone who accepts me for the person who I am."

As Dillon walked away, Tracy turned to look out a nearby window, concealing the few tears that trickled down her face.


	30. Good Deeds

Georgie didn't need to even know Dillon as well as she did to know what was obvious and right in front of her. He was hurting. Fighting with his mother had done something to him that he didn't like. He hated fighting with her. He might have hated being her son, at least on some level. She wrapped her arms around Dillon, embracing him, giving him the support that he no doubt needed.

"Why do we have to be so different?" Dillon asked, returning the gesture in kind, feeling Georgie intertwined with him filling him with a small amount of comfort and happiness. Not enough to knock out the impression that his mother had left on him. Her mark on his soul would always be there.

"You're a better person than Tracy, Dillon. You're kind, sweet, funny, loving, helpful. Those are all the things that your mother doesn't even understand. She might know what they mean, but that's it. She can't be that type of person, but you can."

"But why can't she be?" Dillon asked. "I mean, how can I be so different from the woman that raised me, from the woman that I spent most of my life being around. She was the only person I had around me for years and years, Georgie. None of her varied little boyfriends, flings of the moment ever stuck around, and they hardly ever paid any attention to me. I had to get this from someone… and if I didn't get it from her…"

"Then maybe you got it from your father?" Georgie went with the most obvious answer. When she said it she tried to correct her error, "I'm sorry, Dillon, I didn't mean for it to…"

"No, it's okay." Paul Hornsby. The man that he knew if only by name, maybe a few pictures that he had convinced his grandmother to let him see when his mother was far away. Lila was hesitant at first, reluctant to open up the can of worms that could have come from doing something like that. But Dillon pointed out to her that he had a right to at least know what his father looked like, and she knew he was right. But those pictures were at least fifteen years old. There was no telling what Paul looked like now. Or even if he was still alive. Even though Dillon knew what he looked like, knew his name, he never once tried to actually find his father. Maybe he was just afraid of finding someone that he didn't like. Someone that was like his mother in some strange way, a parent that was a parent in name only, not really in spirit. Tracy tried to be the best mother that she could be, but nurturing was never her strong suit. "Could we please talk about something else, Georgie? I won't let her get to me like this. Not today."

"Come here," Georgie dragged Dillon. Some would think that it was to place distance between Tracy and Dillon, and while that may have been true it wasn't really her intent. When she stopped pulling, she smiled, looking up at him. "There we go."

"What?" Dillon asked. "Why'd you take me here… I mean, it's not like we went anywhere special."

"Oh, but we might have," Georgie pointed upward. "What do you see there?"

Dillon smirked, "I do believe that's Mistletoe…"

"And what…"

Before Georgie could finish asking the obvious question, she felt his lips on hers. Sensual, brisk, warming. An escape from the rigors of their actual lives, finding sanctuary in their shared bond, the only place where they were the only two people that mattered. It was their favorite place to be.

"You know…" she said softly as they finished with their warm embrace, "that could just well be the best Christmas present I've ever gotten from anyone."

"I'd certainly hope that it was the best kiss you've ever gotten from one of your boyfriends at Christmas, unless the person who holds the record already is me, then I'm okay with it."

"You're the only person that's ever owned that part of me, Dillon, you know that."

"Yeah, I do know," Dillon was glad that he had Georgie. Life without her wouldn't have been worth living.

"You haven't even commented on the outfit yet," Georgie didn't hate the outfit as much as Maxie, but it still wasn't her favorite thing to wear. "Please, be brutally honest if you have to, just don't make me cry. Elves can't cry."

"I'd be the most horrible person on the face of the earth if I made you cry at Christmas… well, tears of pain, anyway. Georgie, you look great, really. Too bad they didn't put money in the budget for fake ears."

"You're not suggesting that I have pointy ears… are you?"

"I'm a director, remember? I have a vision, and my elves have pointy ears, like Link! But then you'd have to carry around a sword and a shield for that one to work out… so we'll just go with looking like the elves on Christmas specials. They have pointy ears, too. Still, fake ears or not, you look as elf-like as you need to in order to make the kids happy. They even gave you those cute little shoes with the points."

"Those are new," she pointed out. "Elizabeth made them herself."

"She does good work."

"You really like them?" An idea popped into Georgie's head at that moment, "If you want, I could commission her into making some of these for you. They could take a lot of material, though. Big feet and all."

"They look cute on you, Georgie. Little elf booties on males don't do much for a public image… Dick Ward can assure you on such things. He still has nightmares of the booties when he was playing Robin. No, my feet shall remain like they are, with boots. Boots, not booties."

Elevator-

Two generations of Adella's bloodline stood next to one another in the elevator of General Hospital. After the initial pep rally at Ric's apartment, getting him to the hospital wasn't that hard. He looked better, too. Shaved, dressed in something that was publicly acceptable, and hopefully not nervous enough to stumble and fall over his own two feet.

"How many times have I thanked you for helping me out?" Ric asked, not looking at Damian, just looking at the numbers on the elevator, tensing up a little each time as they went up another floor. One floor closer to the floor where Elizabeth was.

"Eight, now," Damian had been watching him. "Please don't worry about it. I'm just glad that you managed to shave without slicing yourself up, oh, and the fact that I didn't have to carry you into the bathroom was a plus."

"The house looked good. I couldn't have done a better job myself."

"Trust me, I just put those things in places where they seemed like they fit. There wasn't any sort of organization to that whole setup. I'm a lot like you, Uncle Ric, I'm not a fan of Christmas."

"So, how do you manage to keep on living through the holiday year after year?"

"I remember that there are people who love this holiday, and I remember that I have no right to push my own pain on them, to make them miserable for something that they have no control over. I accept that people want to be happy around the holiday, and I do my best to make sure that they have a Christmas that they want."

"You are a strange, strange young man, Damian."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It is," Ric saw that they were only one floor away from hitting the floor where the party was. It was now or never. "Is there anything wrong with me? Hair messed up, tie not straight, am I wearing matching socks?"

"You're fine, Uncle Ric. You probably could have done without that much cologne. What'd you do, empty the bottle?"

"It was almost empty anyway…"

"Halfway does not mean almost empty, especially with cologne. Why do you think I tended to turn away from you most of the time that we were walking over here?"

"I hadn't taken a shower in two days… I didn't want to stink…"

"The shower took care of the smell, at least on you… fortunately I managed to find some air freshener in the house, took care of the smell."

"This is a bad idea… I shouldn't have come…"

"What's the best way to apologize to Elizabeth for hurting her feelings than being here for her when she needs you? It's the best bet that you have at getting forgiveness from her, Uncle Ric. Don't make me call up Max and have him bring people to guard each exit and make sure that you stay in the same building with her. I'd hate to call them away from whatever they're doing, but they probably won't mind."

The door opened, and when it did, Ric saw her. But she hadn't noticed him yet. Instead of feeling like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he felt just the opposite, he felt that he was being burdened with something that he didn't want to deal with. He tried to reach for the button that would take them back down before she could become any more the wiser, but as quick as he has was, his younger nephew's reflexes were quicker. Damian grabbed Ric's wrist, his face showing Ric that he wasn't going to give up. Finally lowering his head in defeat, Ric took the first step out of the elevator, Damian following closely behind.

"You're doing the right thing," Damian looked around at all the people. He didn't see Maxie yet, but he saw Dillon and Georgie. Maybe they knew where she was. "If you don't want to speak with her right now, I won't stop you, but you're going to have to be here with her and you will see her eventually. Quit stalling and get it over with."

"Maybe I shouldn't have called you… it would have just been easier to wallow in my self-pity."

"But then you wouldn't have gotten anywhere. No sense lamenting over the past, just learn from your mistakes and move on. Go." Why did it seem like he was the only one who could offer out any sort of advice… even to the people who should have been giving him the advice? He finally understood what it meant to have the soul of an 80 year old trapped in the body of a 21 year old.

She waited for Ric to walk away. She would never be comfortable around him. When he was safely far enough for her to feel comfortable, she tapped Damian on the shoulder, "Merry Christmas!"

Tilting his head to see who it was, he smiled when he saw Bobbie, "Merry Christmas, Bobbie."

Bobbie was quick to hug him. "It means a lot to me that you're here, since this is your first Christmas in Port Charles and this is hardly what most young adults would like to do on Christmas Eve."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Damian saw what Elizabeth had done with the place. It was indeed impressive, a testament to her artistic abilities. "Did someone bring by a bag, give it to you?"

"Yes," Bobbie remembered when someone did come to her earlier that day. "They said that it was for you. Do you know what it is?"

"Well, it's more from me, but I didn't know how long it would take for me to get here and I didn't want to be later if I was late in the first place… so I had one of dad's men bring the presents that I got for some people that I thought were going to be here."

"That would explain the shiny wrapping paper…"

"None of those were wrapped by me, I can promise you that. Maxie did it all. She's guilty if they were bad. And she's the one who you should praise if they were good."

"Placing the blame on your girlfriend isn't the best way to keep her around," Lucky came up from the side. He and Damian weren't close, they probably weren't even friends, but they didn't hate each other and they did get along. "I promise not to tell her anything, if one of those presents that you were talking about is for me."

"Actually, one of them is for you, Lucky," he couldn't forget Lucky, who was instrumental in the plot that got him his freedom. The fact that he was Carly's cousin and Bobbie's nephew didn't work against him, either.

"I'm glad you're both here… I could use two strong young men to help me move the couch out of the way so that we have more room to put the kids who can't sit on the floor while Alan reads to them."

"Hard labor?" Damian looked at Lucky, "I don't suppose we can claim workman's comp…"

"This isn't the police station, and you don't work…" Lucky didn't mind helping Bobbie, and he suspected that Damian didn't either. "Looks like we're stuck with the job."

"Let's just get it over with…" Damian didn't mind either, but why make it appear that he did? It was all in good humor.

It didn't take them very long. The couch wasn't heavy. Lucky went off to do his own thing once more while Damian found himself accidentally walking into someone as he scanned the crowd for his girlfriend. "Excuse me…"

Tracy steadied herself from the jolt that came with bumping into the younger man, and when she saw who it was she wasn't exactly thrilled, "Come to destroy another part of my life?"


	31. Special Treatment

"Miss Quatermaine, I apologize for my clumsiness…"

"But you don't feel the need to apologize for planting the seeds that grew inside my son's head that gave him the idea that he needed to leave his family, his mother…"

"Jason and Courtney are his family…"

"Jason is about as much a member of the Quatermaines as the various members of my esteemed lineage who line up the local cemetery. Jason Quatermaine is dead to us, my young criminal in training, unfortunately for most of my fellow family members, I seem to be the only person who can even see that very simple fact. And Courtney… we won't even discuss that girl… how I was momentarily related, even by marriage, to someone who used to strip for money I will never understand…"

"My Aunt may have a past that she isn't very proud of, Miss Quatermaine, but she admits her mistakes and she's learned from them. She's a better person now than she was when she first arrived here."

"Because moving from a stripper to a mob princess is such a convincing and acceptable leap on the social ladder."

"Are you done yet?" Damian knew that the woman was Dillon's mother, but that didn't mean that he couldn't have an opinion on Tracy. His opinion? He really, really didn't like her. "Because it takes a certain type of person on this purported social ladder that you seem to be so fond of to speak about a person when they're not even here…"

"Fine, we won't talk about someone who isn't here. We'll talk about the person that's right in front of me. That would be you, Damian Zuniga… or Corinthos, or whatever the hell you're calling yourself at this time of the month… you know, when Dillon first said that he had made an older friend, I was somewhat thrilled for my child. I thought that maybe, just maybe he was starting to expand his horizons, associate himself with people who would set him on the right track in life. Impart wisdom on Dillon that people like that supposedly well-educated little rat that he's so fond of couldn't possibly hope to grasp. Maybe the friend, that would be you, something I didn't know at the time but for the sake of telling the story in an honest way we'll go with this…"

"You can tell a story in a way that's honest?" Damian ribbed Tracy. Not only was she insulting him, his family, but now he was insulting his friends.

"Don't interrupt me you petty, low-income louse or I'll find a way to send you back to the ghettos of Los Angeles so fast that you won't even know what hit you. At least there you wouldn't be staining my streets with your blood… again. I thought that maybe, just maybe, you would help Dillon become a better person. Instead, you only helped send him down a path that I never wanted for him."

"I had nothing to do with Dillon's decision to leave the Quatermaine Mansion. I wasn't even conscious at the time that he decided that. I was in a coma, remember? I'm sure you do, since you seem to remember the time when my blood stained your precious streets quite fondly."

"It's almost a day where I would declare a personal holiday… and it would be, if it weren't also the day where my son made the decision to walk out of my life!"

Damian could see that Dillon was observing the two. Luckily, he was the one who could see Dillon, Tracy had her back turned to her son, and if she could see him… she would see that he was less than pleased. "You are the one who threw your child, your baby, who you claim to love with all of your heart and soul, however much of both of those you might be able to actually muster up in your being. If you want anyone to blame for what happened with Dillon, Miss Quatermaine, you really should just look at yourself. You used what little love and respect that Dillon felt that he could give you and tried to control him with it. How long did you really think that it was going to last? He still cares about you… but you refuse to change, you refuse to accept him for who he is, for the friends and the loves that he's made. What do you want, lady?"

"I want my baby back," Tracy said bluntly. "I want you people to stop poisoning his mind with whatever it is…"

"Compassion."

"In your delusion, I'm sure that it could be thought of as that, but I'm not going to give you the credit for your ignorance that most other people would. Dillon is my son, he is my blood, he is the single most important aspect of my life."

"You care about him, don't you?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"One that deserves an answer, wouldn't you say?" There was something about Tracy that was obvious. The way that she talked was harsh, venomous, downright mean, but when she spoke about Dillon, about how he wasn't in her life any more, there was something else. There was regret.

"He's my son, I love him. I don't just care about him the way that I care about a business partner. I would protect Dillon with everything that I could muster up if I felt that he needed it, if someone hurt my child, I would do whatever it took to make sure that they paid in kind for what they did."

"You have an exceptionally odd way of showing how you care about Dillon, Miss Quatermaine."

"Some people would assume that I didn't show it at all. Are you one of those people?"

"No, I'm not, at least not any more. I may not have ever truly been one of them, but speaking to you… it put something in perspective for me. You should appreciate my influence on Dillon a little bit more, though."

"Give me one good reason."

"How many times has Dillon gone to spend time with you since he managed to get away from the mansion?" Damian knew the answer, and he also knew that Tracy knew. She wouldn't forget the moments where Dillon actually managed to go spend time with her. They were, no doubt, the high point of her day, her week, quite possibly her month.

"Only a handful… less than six. Why?" Tracy was curious as to why he seemed to care.

"He didn't want to see you at first, Miss Quatermaine. He wanted to wash himself clean of you completely, and he was ready to do that, to push you out of his life. You crossed a line that no mother should ever cross. You wanted him to sacrifice the person that he was so that he could still be your little boy. Who do you think drove Dillon to the Mansion, quite literally kicking and screaming each time? Who do you think convinced him each and every time that you're his mother, that, even though you might have done some horrible things to him, nothing will change that?"

"You're not really expecting me to believe that you would take the time out of your own life to make sure that my son spent time with me, do you?"

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but my mother died when I was younger than Dillon is now, younger than he was when he came to Port Charles. Much like you and him, Miss Quatermaine, at the time that she died, she was the only parent I had. I might have had a family around me that you denied Dillon growing up, but I could only have one mother. When she died a part of me was gone, and I would give anything, anything to have just one more moment with my mom. Dillon was willing to throw away the past that he had with you, the good in addition to everything that was bad. I'm his best friend, or so I like to think that I am, and it is my job as his best friend, as someone who, very much like you, is concerned with the wellbeing of someone that I care about, to make sure that he doesn't make mistakes that he'll regret. If he phased you out of his life, he would regret that when he lost you. I couldn't let that happen."

"Your sob story might work on some people, Damian, but I am not one of them." Tracy was lying, bold faced lying, but it was one of the many things that she was good at. Some would say that it was the thing that she was best at.

"Then think about it, Miss Quatermaine. Think about who is a part of Dillon's life now. Jason, Courtney, Carly, Georgie… how many of those people would willingly defend the bond that you have with your son? The answer, I'm sure you're quick to realize, is none. Your only ally in keeping your son in your life is me, Miss Quatermaine, you might not want to push me away, too. I'm a Corinthos, because of that I'm also incredibly stubborn, willing to stick it out when a fight comes, but even I have my limits." Damian began to move away, "Enjoy your Christmas party at the mansion tonight…"

"How did you know about that? The party?"

"Dillon was telling me about it before. There was something in his eyes that showed he had a big fondness for the event, but there was also the sadness in those same eyes that showed he didn't feel like he could go."

"He's family, he's always welcome."

"Not because you don't want him there," Damian corrected her, "but because he doesn't want himself there." Leaving Tracy to wallow in the mistakes that she had made during her life, Damian walked away.

Ric might have wanted to watch Damian. If he had, he probably would have gone to his nephew's aid… although Damian wouldn't have needed it. There was an assumption about Tracy Quatermaine, she didn't back down. Ric would have thought that she would have eaten Damian without batting an eyelash. He would have been impressed with the way that the boy did in fact handle himself.

But Ric had many other things on his mind. Or, more precisely, one thing on his mind that took priority over everything else, even his nephew, which he knew Damian understood. It was, after all, his actions that brought him next to Elizabeth. She was talking to some people, obviously about the design of the scene that she created. He was watching her intently.

Audrey had managed to break away from some of the various people who would give donations to the hospital, she made sure that she did when she saw that Ric had indeed attended the party. She had her reservations about Ric, everyone did. And at that moment, she wasn't really happy with her ex-grandson-in-law. "If you're here to ruin Elizabeth's day, I want to you leave right now before you can make her cry… again."

"Audrey, that's the last thing I've ever wanted to do…"

"Yet it's often the first thing that you actually end up doing, Ric." She sighed. "I know that, most of the time, your intentions are good. Misguided, but good. Elizabeth needs someone who can offer her stability in her life."

"Someone like Lucky Spencer, maybe?" Ric asked bitterly.

"Elizabeth doesn't want to be with Lucky, not any more, but she'll have her heart set on being with you again unless you break away from her. Ric, I know you love her, but the way that you are… it might not be what she needs. If you love a person you can let them go, even if it hurts, if it is what is best for them."

"Gram?" Elizabeth had broken away from her own crowd, but Audrey was speaking to someone that she couldn't see. "Who are you…" she saw him, just the smallest part of his face, and she knew that it was him. "Ric…"

"Elizabeth…" Ric's voice was the same as hers, breathless, enamored.

"Thank you for coming," she smiled, blushing.

"I told you I wouldn't miss this, didn't I? I know how important this is to you. I didn't want to do something that would hurt you, and missing this would…" he gave a cautious eye to Audrey.

"I think I see Bobbie… I'll go ask her where our Santa is…"

Ric and Elizabeth said nothing to one another, they just continued to stare at each other, both afraid to make the first move, as if any little word would mean that they would lose everything that they had.

Maxie came around the corner. She was trying to avoid being seen in the outfit as much as she possibly could be, but it was getting ever closer to the moment where she would need to be in public for a period of time, she might as well have gotten it over with. The bracelet that she got was clearly displayed, but the letter was with her regular clothes. She had read it a few times over, and she was still touched that Damian was willing to do something that was so nice.

She saw him, he was walking around. Sneaking up behind him, she covered his eyes, "You can't find anyone if you can't see…"

"No, but I can hear their voice… and feel their hands. Do you think it's a little odd that I know the way that your hands feel?"

"A little, yeah, but it's also kind of romantic."

"Good. Maxie, take your hands, beautiful and lovely though they may be, off my eyes, please." As soon as she did what he requested, he saw the outfit. "You see? You were complaining about this, and it looks wonderful on you."

"You're just saying that."

"No, I'm not. Really, I like it. You should wear it more often."

"Now you're lying."

He gave a toothy grin, "Maybe a little." He had seen Monica, Alan and Bobbie coming up together, something that he didn't take into very much consideration, until they stopped in front of him. "More labor, Bobbie?"

"Quite the opposite…" Bobbie said, hiding something, something that made her very proud.

Alan spoke, holding Monica's hand, "We never got to thank you for saving that man who had the seizure… he would have died without your help."

"You would have done the same, even at my age." Damian didn't want to go through another overzealous amount of praise.

"Even so… you showed something that most people wouldn't have," Monica let go of Alan's hand to walk closer to Damian. "We looked at your grades at the school, they're very good, and your other grades at the college you went to in Los Angeles were also stellar. Normally we don't usually do this sort of thing… but we're offering you a chance to intern with us directly as soon as the semester begins."


	32. Failed Attempts At Being Festive

While Maxie may have been overjoyed with the possibilities of her boyfriend getting a foot in the medical door, she noticed that the same was not to be said about the boyfriend in question. He should have been happy, but he wasn't. Why wasn't he happy? She wanted to ask, but she didn't want to make it obvious to the other people that were around him. Maybe they didn't know him as well as she did. Maybe they didn't notice that there was something that was bothering him like she did.

"I…" rare was it when Damian was forced to be at a loss for words, but he was at that moment in his life. What could he say? This was his dream, and it was closer to becoming a reality. Even if he wasn't a 'doctor' if he was just someone who went around with the Doctors Quatermaine and Bobbie that was still better than nothing, certainly a degree better than most 21 year old students ever got. So how could he pass it up?

"Isn't this wonderful?" Bobbie, ever the excited one, finally managed to get the big secret off her chest. They had been discussing it since that day when Jeremiah came into the hospital, singing the praises of the young man who kept him alive. She had to keep it a secret from everyone, even Lucky, Georgie and especially Maxie. She couldn't risk any of them ruining the surprise that she had helped with.

"It's an honor," Damian subconsciously gripped onto Maxie with more force, just for the stability that touching her gave him. "But… I just don't see why you're doing it."

"No good deed goes unpunished," Monica was wondering why the boy hadn't accepted yet. "Obviously, this time when you saved a life it didn't come at the cost of you being in the hospital unconscious overnight…"

"Monica," Alan spoke firmly. "I'm sure that he doesn't want to remember that night. Nobody does. Although, if you wanted us to be completely honest with you, Damian, that night does have a lot to do with it, and the time that you were falsely imprisoned. It showed us that you're not the type of person who is going to back down from a challenge. You spent two weeks inside of cell, you missed two full weeks of classes, normally that would be enough to cripple any medical student, and then you were in the hospital, kidnapped, bedridden… not to mention the tremendous pain that you must have been going through while your body recovered, and still you managed to pull your grades up. A lot of people would have just given up, at least for a semester or so. I know I would have."

"If those things would have happened to me, I wouldn't have tried to salvage my grades," Monica agreed with Alan. It was a testament to Damian's sheer power of will that he was able to steady himself after such a huge tumble.

"I spoke to your professors at the college myself," Alan continued, "a few of them were old colleagues of mine. They knew who you were and they said that you had a lot of potential. We're just offering you the chance to let that potential grow."

"Do… do I have time to think about this?" Damian hoped that he didn't have to make a decision at that moment. He didn't think that he could. There were so many things that he needed to consider. He would still have to go to school, keep his grades up, work at the hospital, be with Maxie… how much of his life would he be sacrificing? He was ready to make the sacrifice that often came with being a doctor, the one where a person was a doctor first and a person second, but that was something that he wasn't ready to do when he was so young.

"Of course," Monica smiled, understanding, at least on some level, what he must have been going through. It was a big decision. One that couldn't be made the moment it was offered. That wouldn't have been the right course of action to take. "But you have to let us know as soon as possible, and if you wait until the end of your break then there's nothing that we can do, we have to file the paperwork and everything before the first day of classes."

"I'm just so happy for you!" Bobbie hugged Damian. He wasn't her grandson, but he could just as well have been. She cared about him, and she knew that he cared about her. Who knew that one kid from Los Angeles that she had spoken to on the phone about renting a room at Kelly's would change her life, her family's life so much? "Sonny will be, too."

"Thank you, Bobbie. I appreciate how much you had to do with this." He knew that she had to have some input on the situation. A nurse was different from a doctor, but she was the head nurse, more importantly, she was Bobbie Spencer. When she talked, people listened.

On the other side of the room, Ric and Elizabeth had finally gotten to the point where they weren't standing and staring at each other. They had made the big step towards sitting on two chairs and staring at one another.

"Did I thank you for coming to this?" Elizabeth wondered.

"I believe you did, yes," Ric could faintly remember her saying something about thanks and coming. "But, to be honest… there was a part of me that didn't want to come. That part of me almost convinced every other part of me to not come."

"Why would you not come?" Elizabeth was hurt. Even though Ric had hurt her before, she didn't think that he would hurt her in a way that meant so much to her.

"Because of what happened at the apartment… the last time we saw each other. Elizabeth, I know what you look like when I hurt you, when I really, truly hurt you deep inside. You gave me that look when you left the apartment, and something inside of me snapped. I couldn't think about anything but you, the way that you looked at me, and how much it meant. You know, I didn't even go outside of my apartment for two days, didn't even get out of my sleeping clothes that whole time… I just didn't want to face the reality that I had broken the one promise that I didn't want to break."

Elizabeth listened to his explanation. She was hurt, yes, hurt that he was willing to toss out a gesture that was just made because of the love that she had in her heart for him, that did sting. She wouldn't deny it. But she had gotten over it after a few hours. Ric had every right to not want his apartment decorated. It was his apartment, it wasn't their apartment. "What promise was that, Ric?"

"The promise I made to not hurt you anymore, not in any way, but certainly not in the way that I used to. I should have known that it was a promise that I couldn't keep."

"You didn't mean to do it, Ric…"

"I never mean to do it, Elizabeth!" Ric sulked. "But that doesn't mean that I don't do it. You know, I try to tell myself that I'm something different, that I'm a better person than I used to be, and every time I start to believe that it might just be true, something happens that makes me wonder if I'm just fooling myself…"

"You're not," Elizabeth gave his hand a gentle pat. "You're not that man that pushed me away, not any longer, and you don't need to apologize for what happened. The fact that you came was all the apology that I needed, besides, I should be the one who apologizes to you. I tried to invade your personal space, to do something to an area of your life where I had no right being."

"Elizabeth, every part of me, everything I own, everything I am, is open to you at your own disclosure. You don't have to worry about overstepping your bounds. You could never do that with me." Cupping his hand over hers, he looked into her eyes, "Are we done fighting? Because I hate it when we fight."

"I hate it, too…" she smiled, leaning into his chest. "Yes, we're done fighting, Ric."

Meanwhile, the final preparations were being made for the party to start. A few of the children had managed to sneak out of their beds and were trying to get a glance at the moment before it was there time, luckily for the hospital, Officer Spencer was on duty. Lucky had managed to round up the escapees and return them to their room before they got too far in. Kids just couldn't wait for Christmas. Lucky remembered what that was like.

As he went by to make sure that there were no kids that he missed, he saw Damian and Maxie sitting on the couch that he had moved with the help of the younger man. They seemed to be holding something back. Lucky hoped it was nothing bad.

Dillon, Georgie in tow, saw that his best friend was troubled over something. Instantly he recalled the conversation that Damian appeared to be having with his mother. "Hey, Damian, don't let her get to you."

Pushed out of his mind, where he was contemplating every decision that he could have made regarding the internship, he looked up at Dillon, "What?"

"My mom…"

"What about her?"

"I saw you talking to her, remember?" Dillon knew he would, Damian was the reason that he stayed away from Tracy, because he had seen that Damian thought he could handle himself, maybe he was wrong. "I knew I should have helped you deal with her."

"This has nothing to do with your mom, Dillon," Damian assured the younger man. "Although I'd be lying if I said the Quatermaine's weren't involved."

"What are you talking about?" Dillon looked at Georgie, who could only shrug her shoulders. She was just as clueless as he was in the matter.

"They offered me an internship for the spring semester…"

"That's great!" Dillon smiled. "Really, that's so cool. You'll be on your way to becoming a doctor in no time."

"Congratulations, Damian," Georgie smiled warmly, "we all know that nobody deserves this more than you. Did they tell you when you were going to start?"

"I didn't say yes…" Damian hated bursting their bubble, but they were getting excited over something that hadn't even happened yet, that might not have happened at all.

"Why?" Dillon and Georgie were stunned, and their bewilderment showed when they both asked the question at the same time. Damian wanted to be a doctor, was going to be a doctor, why would he take steps that would prohibit his dream from coming true? That didn't make any sense to either of them.

"You haven't even told me yet," Maxie had remained silent, giving Damian the time that he needed while still showing that she was there to support him no matter what he decided. "You haven't even given me one good reason why you would pass up this chance. It's not like people get it all the time, you said it yourself."

"What if I can't handle it?" Damian asked the gathered crowd. "I don't have the training that I would have if I took the internship later, when I took more classes. I'd be inexperienced, really inexperienced. What if I made some stupid mistake that cost someone their life? Then the hospital would be liable, both Doctor Quatermaine's would have a horrible mark on their reputations…"

"You don't need to worry about Alan and Monica having bad reputations," Dillon was trying to lighten the mood. It was what he did. "Being Quatermaine's is more than enough for that to happen."

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt…" Damian finished his statement. Dillon's efforts, while appreciated, did not have the desired effect.

"You don't hurt people, Damian," Georgie tried her hand at the making him feel better mission. "You save people's lives, like that guy at the diner."

"He saved someone's life at Kelly's?" Dillon hadn't even heard the story, and he wondered why he had been kept out of the loop.

"He was amazing," Maxie told Dillon. "He knew exactly what needed to be done and he did it, no questions asked, no second thoughts, just did what it took to keep the poor guy alive."

"It was different then," Damian got up from the couch. "I know how to help a person who is having a seizure. I know how to make a splint for a broken bone. I know how to do a lot of things, guys, but I don't know enough. Not yet. I should take this chance, I know that I should. This is something I want to do, but I don't know if I should. They said that I had time to think about it, and I'm going to take that time, as much of it as I need."

"Maxie, Georgie," Lucky once more came around, this time at the behest of Bobbie herself. "Bobbie says that they're ready to start, you guys need to go over there."

Hesitant to leave, the girls knew that they had a duty, one that wouldn't take very long. They could help Damian through his problem after they helped make the kids feel better. Besides, he had Dillon at his side, and Dillon didn't appear to be going anywhere. Where else could he go, next to the Quatermaines?

A few minutes later, Maxie and Georgie were leading a trove of children towards the area that had been turned into a winter wonderland for them. It was easy to see that they were all truly touched by the spectacle, and everyone shared in that jubilance, watching as Santa, Ned Ashton in costume, handed out various gifts to the children, one at a time.

When the presents were handed out, and Santa left to fulfill his promise to give children around the world the gifts that they deserved, Alan came up and sat in the same seat, opening the book and beginning the yearly reading, the time honored tradition that had become as much a part of General Hospital as anything else.

Family and friends gathered around, at least for the most part. For some, that simple desire couldn't be fulfilled. Although she had the hastily changed Ned by her side, Tracy didn't have Dillon. She could see him, she could always see him, and she could see the distance that was between them. Something she wanted to change.


	33. Gambler

Later-

"You want to explain to me why I'm blindfolded, in a car, on Christmas Eve?"

"Because my induction ceremony into the business requires that I kill a rich person at point blank range. You were the easiest rich boy to nab. You didn't think I befriended you because of your charm, humor and wit, did you?"

"No, I was pretty sure that it was because of the hair."

"The money certainly didn't go against you." Damian had an idea of what he wanted to do, he had gotten it especially after his encounter with Tracy. Yes, there was the nice, normal present that he had bought for Dillon in the back seat of Bobbie's borrowed car, but there was something else that Damian wanted to give his friend, but he knew that Dillon would probably object to the idea if he knew what it was.

"It doesn't even take this long to walk from the hospital to the towers, Damian. Where the hell are you taking me?"

"I told you… well, I didn't tell you everything. We're going to the woods, there, you will be executed…"

"Stop playing around," Dillon knew that the boy wasn't going to shoot him, but he was getting tired with the cryptic nature of the information that was slowly being siphoned to him. "Come on, I wouldn't hide a secret from you."

He had only been to the Quatermaine mansion a scant few times, but that didn't mean that it didn't stand out. How many other lavish mansions were there in Port Charles? Lucky for him, the guards seemed to have the day off. Even the Quatermaine's knew what Christmas meant to the little people. It was probably their Christmas bonus that they even got the day off. Without pay.

Both Georgie and Maxie objected to the idea. He had told them while Dillon was away, bathroom break or something. Neither liked the idea of once again exposing Dillon to the harsh Quatermaine world. That was why they weren't with him, because they would have kept on objecting. It wasn't that Damian thought he was right. For all he knew he could have been wrong, but he needed, wanted, to offer Dillon the chance that he was denying himself. If Dillon said that he didn't want to go, then that was it, they would go back to the penthouse, nobody would be hurt, nobody would hold it against him, but he needed to make the choice himself.

"You know, I could take this blindfold off me without much effort," Dillon hated the silence that was in the car. He hated silence for the most part, unless it was silent film. He liked silent film. "It's not like you tied my hands or anything."

"I'm trusting you to trust me on this, Dillon… but I won't stop you from taking the blindfold off. In fact, go ahead. We're here." Damian switched the car into park and waited for the presumably inevitable fallout.

"Where'd you even manage to get a blindfold, anyway?"

"Hospital's full of them… or maybe Bobbie just has a few on hand. Being Luke Spencer's sister, it's not hard to understand."

"No, I guess," Dillon removed the blindfold from his eyes and saw the house. He should have known that he was back at the mansion. He should have felt the way that his skin crawled whenever he came back to the house. "What the hell are we doing here?"

"Your family's Christmas party is happening right now."

"And what are we going to do, throw eggs at the house? Please say that you brought a carton of eggs…"

"It's not Halloween, Dillon," Damian undid the seatbelt. "Don't tell me that you don't want to be here on Christmas. This is your family. I saw the way that you looked when you were talking about the Quatermaine Christmas parties. You were happy, Dillon. You were in that place that you go when you talk about the things that you really love, but you switched…"

"They don't want me here." Dillon lowered his head. He couldn't believe his best friend would torment him like he was. Didn't Damian understand how much it hurt him to see the mansion, especially on Christmas Eve?

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"I just know," he couldn't explain it. "They never wanted me around, not when my mom dropped me off so that she could go and play around in Europe without me, not when she came back… I was always just tolerated."

"Your mother loves you, Dillon," Damian knew the battle wasn't going to be easy, but he wasn't going to give up easily.

"How would you know?"

"Because all mothers love their children, at least on some level, not to mention the fact that when we were talking at the hospital I could see it in her, I could hear her. She misses you, Dillon."

"Then why did she throw me out of the house?" Dillon asked bitterly. "You don't shoo the people that you love away. You don't push them to be someone that they aren't, to be something that they don't want to be." Realization hit Dillon, and he had to know the answer to the question that buzzed in his head, "Why are you defending her, anyway? You, of all people. The only person who would be less likely to defend my mother would be Georgie."

"She was against the idea…"

"Yeah, well, she knows me. Apparently she knows me better than you do. She knows how much I don't want to see my mother." Crossing his arms as if he were a child pouting, Dillon muttered, "I know you're trying to help, Damian… but we don't all have relationships like the one that you had with your mom."

"You're right, you don't. Your mom is still alive."

"That's not what I meant…"

"No, but it's what I mean, Dillon," Damian started the car again. "I gave you the chance that I thought you wanted, but I guess I was wrong. You don't want to do this for your mother, you don't want to do it for yourself."

"Who else would I do it for?"

"What about Lila?" Damian's hand went into his pocket, reaching for his phone. He pulled it out and pushed one of the speed dial buttons. His plan was two-fold.

"What about my grandmother?" Dillon didn't understand the connection.

Damian waited until he heard the faintest sound of recognition from the phone before he spoke, "This is the Quatermaine's first Christmas without Lila, without the one person who always brought the family together. I may have never met your grandmother, but she's a lot like my own, Dillon. Everyone loved her, respected her, would do anything for Lila. Right now, do you really think that Lila would want her family apart? Don't you think that she would want her family to be with one another if they could be? You live in Port Charles. It's different if you live across the country, or on the other side of the world, but you live in the same town, you're barely a few minutes away. Think about your family, this is one of the hardest times for them. It's never going to get easier, but you being there, being with them, just giving them a shoulder that they might need, that they might not even know that they need, that's what she would want."

Dillon thought about Lila. She was never far from his mind. He thought about the way that she smiled when she was happy, she always smiled the most when her family was together… and when they weren't trying to destroy one another. He thought about the way that his mother looked at the funeral, the way that everyone looked, even Jason, when they realized that she was gone, that she wasn't going to be coming back. Every Quatermaine was torn into pieces when she died, but none it appeared more than his mom. He didn't like the way that she was, but he never wanted her to be in pain.

"I hate it when you're right, you know that…" Dillon finally succumbed. "I mean it, Damian. I really, really hate it when you're right. What's worse is that you always know how to point out that you're right."

"I've got skills," Damian smiled. "Nobody is expecting much, Dillon. Your mom's not even expecting you to be there."

"Why are you helping her? She doesn't even like you."

"Because she's still your mother," he said simply. "Like you said, people don't always have the relationship that I have with my mom, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stand by and watch as you neglect your own mom. When she's gone, Dillon, you're going to wish that you had spent more time with her… I'm giving you the chance to make the separation easier. A chance that I never got to have."

"You win," Dillon opened the door, undoing his safety belt. "I don't have presents for them…"

"It's more than just presents, go," Damian still wished that he had one more moment with her, something that he would never get. He knew that Tracy felt that way about her own mother. The two of them had things in common that nobody else even thought they would have.

When Dillon was safely out of view, Damian ended the phone call. The connection was still strong. It was a gamble, but it was one that he felt that he needed to take.

Morgan Household-

"Who was that?" Courtney had seen Jason on the telephone for what seemed to be a few minutes. But he hadn't said anything outside of 'Hello' and now he was off the phone. It was a strange conversation.

Jason looked at the phone, surprised that Damian had taken the steps that he took. "Courtney… I need to go."

"What?" She was surprised. She walked over to him and clung at his arm. "Jason, please. It's Christmas Eve. Now is the time for us to be with our family, I don't want you to go out and do something. I know that I told you I would never ask you to pick between your family and your business, but just this one time I am going to ask that of you. Please… don't do something dangerous."

"It's not dangerous," Jason rested his chin on the top of her head, hugging her. "It's just something that I need to do, for my grandmother."

"Lila?" Courtney looked up, wondering what he meant. "What does she have to do with this…"

"Apparently everything," Jason smirked. "I don't know how long I'm going to be gone." He didn't know how long he could stand to be around the Quatermaine's, even for Lila, even in honor of her, but, as Damian so pointed out, it was something that she would have wanted, so he at least had to give it a try. "Tell Sonny that I probably won't make it to the tree trimming."

"Do you need me to be with you?" Courtney asked.

"No, this is something that I need to do alone, but thank you." Jason put his jacket on and walked out the door.

Quatermaine Mansion-

Dillon remembered doing the same thing that he was doing at that moment when he first arrived. He would just hide and watch the family that he was supposed to living with. He never found living with the Quatermaine's to be an easy task, it was daunting. But he could see the way that they looked. He could see the way that his mom looked. She was in pain.

Reaching for the doorknob, Dillon really hoped that he was making the right decision.


	34. Good Intentions Aren't Enough

Quatermaine Mansion, Interior-

Tracy had yet to see her son in the doorway. She was too busy thinking about the way that Dillon avoided making any contact with her during the entire Christmas Party at the hospital than to worry about anything that was happening inside of her house. Looking at the picture of Lila that was on the counter, Tracy gently ran her index finger down the glass, wishing that she could do the same thing to her mother's real face, just one last time.

"Oh, mommy," she placed the picture back on the counter, still fixated entirely on it, "now I know how you felt when I would take myself away from the mansion. I've always known how you felt having a child that was almost nothing like you, but this was something that I thought I could avoid. I always wanted my sons to know that I loved them, even when I didn't know how to show it in ways that you would approve of, I didn't want to shove them out of my life… but that's exactly what I did with Dillon, isn't it? Why couldn't I just be a little more like you? Why couldn't I have inherited just the smallest bit of your grace and your charm… not to mention your heart. I did some of the most horrible things I could have ever done to anyone, sometimes to you, sometimes to this family, and you always found a way to forgive me, to still love me. You were something else, mommy… and the world seems just a little bleaker without you."

"Come, mother," Ned saw the tail end of the conversation that Tracy was having with the picture. His mother and he may have never seen eye to eye, they might have only rarely gotten along, but he still didn't like ever seeing her in pain. "It's Christmas Eve, now isn't a time for mourning. It's a time for celebration, for family."

"How can I celebrate family when one of the only members of my family that I actually care about isn't here with us?" Tracy leaned against Ned. "At least you're here, my darling. At least I have one son who loves me enough to be around me… even if it's only for a little while."

"Mother, please, you're bringing down the mood of the party. Do this for Grandmother's sake, much like I did when I dressed up like Santa. I did it because she would have wanted me to do it." Gently clasping her hand in his, Ned kissed his mother on the forehead, "I know that this is hard for you, but you're only making it harder by moping around the whole time. Look at me… my children aren't even here for Christmas, either. It tears at me to know that Brooke Lynn and Kristina aren't here, but I manage to go on, to put a smile on my face, because I'm a Quatermaine, and I don't let people know when something gets to me."

Tracy looked up at her oldest son, "If there was ever one lesson that I wanted you to learn from me, Ned, it was that one that you just repeated to me right now. It makes me very proud of you to know that you took it to heart." She sighed a moment later, "I just wish that I could practice what I was preached to you, being without Dillon… it really hurts me. What's worse is that I know now that I owe every single visit that he's ever made to me since he moved in with Alan's favorite little Mafioso to that kingpin in training that he calls a best friend."

"Excuse me?" Ned wasn't following. He and Damian had barely met. Ned was busy doing things for ELQ most of the time, and that called him away on several detours. It was only through sheer determination that he was able to get enough time off for Christmas. That and the fact that he knew he wanted to be around his family just as much as they wanted him to be around them. The wound of Lila's passing would always be there, but it was still very fresh.

"Damian and I had a little chat at the hospital party. He bumped into me. At first I thought he was going to try and mug me for my money or for my jewelry, but he didn't, nor did he pull a gun on me. I'll give him the smallest bit of credit, at least he doesn't try and do stupid things in the middle of a party, with a large crowd. Jason and Sonny must have trained him well."

"Mother, the point," Ned couldn't really care less about her opinion of Damian. He'd made his own, although it wasn't much better than Tracy's. His distaste for Sonny ran deep, and by default his distaste for the children that Sonny had was also quite dark. Was it a little unfair? Well, more than a little, yes, but it was how the Quatermaine's handled themselves.

"The point is that he said that the only reason Dillon's even still talking to me is because he convinced my son to pay attention to me, his own mother. I destroyed my relationship with Dillon… I know that now, but I always thought that he had come back to me based on the love that he had for me in his heart, but now I find out that it was because someone else kept on telling him that he needed to come see me? How do you think that makes me feel, Ned? Never mind, let me tell you how it makes me feel, it makes me feel very upset. Worse," Tracy put her glass of brandy down, "it makes me feel hurt."

"How do you know he wasn't lying, mother?" Ned asked. "You can't take the word of a Corinthos very seriously, even one who has only recently been christened as such."

"I think I know a thing or two about when people are lying to me, Ned," Tracy, momentarily, went back into the natural form for her, that devilish grin appearing on her face. "I can read people better than they want to think I can, and I know that he was telling the truth."

On the other end of the room, Emily Quatermaine sat next to her parents. She loved being around them, but she could only rarely find the time. Her life with Nikolas, who was spending time with Lulu and Lucky at the Spencer House, took priority for her, but on Christmas, on Christmas, she wanted to be with the people who had taken her in. She was watching Tracy and Ned speak to one another, and she had seen the way that Dillon gave her the cold shoulder while they were both at the party. Pity swelled in Emily's heart. "You know, I never thought I would say this, ever, in my entire life, but I feel bad for Tracy right now. She can't hide the pain that she's going through as well as she thinks she can. Usually her face is just so blank, lifeless, if anything its evil, but right now, with Ned… you can see the pain."

"I've questioned many things about Tracy in my life, Emily," Monica began, "but the one thing that I have never, ever found myself questioning when it comes to her is how much she loves her children, Dillon especially. She might be an evil viper who I should have kicked out of this house, my house, long ago, but when you're a parent there really isn't anything that you can do about loving your children, and hurting when they finally stop needing you."

"If she were smart she would come over here and seek some advice from us," Alan mused. "Monica and I have turned being without our children around the holiday's into something that we can deal with."

"I've only found myself on the verge of tears once today," Monica smiled, "it's a record." She looked around at the pictures of the family, pictures of all of the Quatermaine's, past and present. Jason and AJ were next to one another, in pictures, they wouldn't dare be caught next to one another in reality. Her sons, both of them were gone. AJ would have been murdered on the spot if he had arrived at the mansion, even on Christmas Eve. The way that he left was so horrible. How could he have done that to his family?

"I thought about calling Jase, inviting him over," Emily gave her mother her sympathy.

"It was a nice thought, sweetie," Monica returned the gesture with an ever warming grin.

"But we know that Jason would have just turned you down," Alan was proud of his daughter for thinking of her parents first. "Anyone who wants Jason to come to the mansion really has a fight ahead of them, unless it's absolutely necessary."

Finally, after what seemed to be a long moment, Dillon slowly turned the knob of the door, opening it. He noticed how it made more noise than he wanted it to. It was always that way, wasn't it? When you tried to be discrete about something, the last thing that ever ended up happening was the person actually being secretive. He may have been living with Jason Morgan, but that didn't mean that he knew how to act like him.

As Dillon stood there, back against the exit, he had to fight the urge to just run back out. All the eyes were looking at him, every single set of eyes in the vicinity, focused on him. The reason he wanted to be a director and not an actor was because he wasn't in front of the camera. Dillon hated being the center of attention. But what if his ride already left? "Umm… hi, everyone," Dillon started to laugh uneasily, "surprise?"

"Glad you could join us, little brother," Ned was the first to speak, seeing as how uncomfortable Dillon was, it was his job to at least do something to ease the tension. "Merry Christmas, Dillon."

"You, too, Ned," Dillon finally remembered how to walk, but as he took a few steps he found his movement being halted entirely by the weight of someone on his shoulders. It didn't take a genius to realize who that person was. "Mom… you know, I still need to breathe."

"You came," Tracy whispered. "I didn't know how I was going to survive tonight without both my children… but I don't have to, because you came."

"I… I don't have any presents or anything," Dillon admitted, "this was really the last place that I thought I would be on Christmas Eve. I mean, I do have presents, for everyone, but they're back at the Penthouse. I was just going to drop them off tomorrow morning and then run away, at least that was the plan."

"Dillon…"

"Yeah, mom?"

"Just shut up and let me hold you for a minute, would you?" Tracy's request was simple and to the point. She didn't want the moment to end. Her baby was back in her arms, that was all that she wanted. It was the best present that he could have ever given her.

"Oh, what I would give for a video camera right now," Alan whispered to Monica. "I could label the tape 'Tracy… being human' and show it around. It would be a smash hit."

"I'll give you a smash hit," Monica elbow Alan in the gut softly, but firmly. "Give her a moment, Alan. Don't take this away from her, none of us should be so cruel, even to Tracy."

"Should we leave them alone?" Emily asked, looking at her parents, only to look back at Dillon and Tracy, Dillon having overhead the suggestion was only shaking his head rapidly, making pleading eyes that they stay.

Quatermaine Mansion, Exterior-

How long had he been waiting? A few minutes? He was willing to give Dillon up to half an hour to chicken out and run back to the car with his tail tucked between his legs. Besides, he still had the other part of his plan to follow up on. He wasn't sure if it was going to work, but he had a feeling that he would find out.

"I thought you got cold real easily…"

"You did come," Damian spun around, having been leaning against the hood of Bobbie's car, to see Jason. "I'm glad…"

"You know, normally I hate it when people try to manipulate me like you did. In fact, I do hate it, and I'm not very happy with you right now. I would have just told you that on the phone, but you were kind of busy manipulating someone else, so I thought I would do this in person."

"Uncle Jason…"

"Don't," Jason interrupted him. "I know you have good intentions, Damian, you always have good intentions, but that doesn't give you the right to try and turn things around, make them the way that you feel they should be. Even if they turn out better that way, you have to give people the choice to make their own decisions, and mistakes if necessary. I thought that maybe you understood that. I really did think that you knew that people had to make up their own mind about things. Why do you think that I didn't try and push you into making a decision about Sonny when you still weren't sure if you should embrace your father or just push him out of his life? I would have accepted your choice either way, and I'm really happy that you made the choice that you did, but at least I gave you that space."

"I didn't mean…"

"No, you did mean to. You knew exactly what you were doing, Damian, don't try and hide it, because you can't. Maybe there are a few people who you can fool, but I'm not one of them. This isn't like the Christmas tree thing, which I know you didn't have anything to do with, but that was a decision that was made and it didn't involve twisting my arm, not like this. You call on the phone while you're giving Dillon this speech about family and togetherness and everything else, including using Lila, a woman that you never even got the chance to know. You can't even respect a dead woman…"

"I thought I was," Damian was shocked and hurt that his good natured idea was exploding in his face like it was. "I thought she would have wanted…"

"You can't think about what someone else wants, especially someone who you don't know! You've really been hanging around Carly too much if you start coming up with schemes like this, Damian. If you would have just told me what you told Dillon, to my face, then maybe it would have been different, but it wasn't. The fact that you were right about it doesn't matter, you can be right about something and still approach it the wrong way, you just proved that." Jason walked over to Damian and leaned against the hood next to him, "I'm sorry that I'm harsh on you right now, truly, I am, but the one thing that's always pissed me off since my accident was the way that people tried to shape me. I don't want to be shaped by anyone but myself, even the people that I care about a lot, and that includes you."

"I don't know why I didn't see it as manipulating people… I just wanted to help…"

"Which is why you didn't see it for what it was. Help people by pushing them in the right direction, not by dragging them with a chain around their necks."

"Do you think Dillon thinks the same thing about me? I don't know if I could stand both of you being mad at me at the same time…"

"Don't take disappointment for being mad. I just thought you knew better. Maybe it's my own fault for giving you as much credit as I do. Sometimes you act like you're a lot older than you are… you might be 21, but you're still a kid."

"I take it you're not going in there, then…"

"No, I am," Jason got up. "Like I said, you were right, but that doesn't mean that you went about it in the best way you could have. I should at least help the Quatermaine's through this adjustment period. I don't think I'll be making yearly visits or anything, but, at least for this Christmas, I'll stick around. I'll bring Dillon back with me… not that you were going to wait much longer after I showed up. Just go spend some time with your own family, would you?" Jason pushed himself off the car and started walking towards the house, the cool Jason Morgan demeanor holding up against the nervous feeling that swelled up inside.


	35. Second Time Around

Port Charles Docks-

"You really didn't need to do this for me, Ric," Elizabeth was holding the hand of the man that she loved tightly. She didn't need him to be so clingy, but she wasn't going to say that she didn't like it. In a way she was perfectly content with Ric being right there beside her. She missed having him around in that way. It was longer than the two days that they had been apart after the Christmas mess, it was so much more than that. She missed being with him. Ric could touch her in ways that nobody else could, and she loved having that feeling around. She didn't regret the choice that she made to end the marriage when she did, but she'd be lying if she said that being with Ric didn't have some very nice fringe benefits.

"Since when is it a crime to walk around with the woman that I love?" Ric asked. Besides, he was in need of a good walk, his legs had almost forgotten what they were supposed to be used for. Luckily for him, that more than wonderful nephew of his managed to pick up the various bags of Fritos and Pretzels that were lying around the apartment.

"The woman that you love…" Elizabeth smiled at the comment.

"What else would you have me call you?" Ric looked down at her, the smile that she was giving warming even his heart. "Don't you think we're both a little too old to be calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend? It makes us sound like we're in high school or something."

"Old?" A stern look appeared on her face, she didn't like being called old, not in the least.

"Allow me to rephrase that," Ric felt like he was suddenly in a courtroom, like he was saying something that he shouldn't have said, or at least he had said it in a way that didn't make sense. "We're too mature to be placing childish terms of affection on one another. Is that better?"

"Much better, snookums."

"See, now you're just doing that to spite me," Ric laughed, a hearty laugh. It was the first that he had in some time. He was always so concerned about whatever crisis was going on, either with him involved, or with him just being around it, that he didn't really have time to just enjoy life, enjoy being with someone that he cared about. He wanted to change that.

"Do you mind that I'm being spiteful?" Elizabeth began to take a few coy steps ahead of Ric. "Some people would say that the cute and goodhearted Elizabeth Webber could never do something like be spiteful. Would you agree with them?"

"What's the answer that you're looking for, Elizabeth?"

"If I told you, then you'd know what I was looking for. You don't get any hints with me, Ric, you should know that by now. Just tell me what you honestly believe the answer to be."

"You can be spiteful, Elizabeth," Ric looked out at the harbor, at the ocean, "I've seen you when you're truly spiteful. You can do things that hurt people much more than any sort of physical blow. You can shun then, make them feel like they're not worthy of love, be it from you or from anyone else in the world. I know the type of person that you can be when you're hurt, or when you're angry, and I truly do fear that side of you, but I know that it's not the person that you are at your core. You're a wonderful person and you only get angry at people when they've done something that is horrible, something that is inexcusable, like locking a pregnant woman in a panic room and never telling anyone about it."

"Don't, Ric, please," Elizabeth begged. "Don't bring up the past, it hurts too much, it still hurts too much."

"You asked the question, I only gave you the answer. I'm trying to be honest with you now, remember? I know how much you hate it when people are dishonest, so, even when it's something that I would much rather not speak to anyone about, including you, I force myself to tell the truth, the whole truth. You can be a very cold individual, Elizabeth, but only when you're pushed to the breaking point. You are the most patient person that I have ever had the chance of being around, and I love you for it. You give people second chances, and even when those don't work out you keep on giving them more if you can see something worth saving in that person, like you saw with me. Yes, it is well within your abilities to be a spiteful woman, but you are more than anything else the most loving and caring individual that I have ever had the chance of being around. The sum of your parts shows your flaws, but those flaws are so small that they really don't matter."

"You know how to sweet talk a woman, don't you, counselor?"

"I know how to present the facts as I see them. I didn't spend years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Law School for nothing. What can I say? I'm skilled."

"At quite a few things, I might add," Elizabeth walked back to Ric and wrapped her arm around him. "I'm sorry that I hurt you by acting the way that I did after everything happened."

"I deserved to be hurt. You don't need to apologize. I would have reacted the same way if I were as good of a person as you are."

"Ric, you are good. You know that you have a good heart deep down inside of you, you've just had so many things happen to you that it can take a long time for that good person to come out and thrive. You've saved people's lives before. You didn't have to, but you did it regardless. How could an evil person do something that is so kind?"

"See?" Ric saw one of the ships that clearly belonged to his brother, but, as was often the case when he was around Elizabeth, Sonny wasn't front and center in his life. Still, Ric couldn't help but wonder what sort of illegal materials were in that ship, or maybe it was one of the few ships that brought the real, legal product. "That's what I'm talking about. With you, you see the good in everyone, even those that don't see it in themselves. You have a vision, Elizabeth, a truly unique vision that isn't shared by many people in the world."

"Gram always said I was a special little girl…"

"Audrey was absolutely correct," Ric kissed Elizabeth gently, pulling away and running his hand through her hair. "You're special, and I would gladly do anything, even give up my life, to see that you were happy."

"I'm not expecting you to die for my happiness, Ric, though the thought is touching. If you were gone I don't even know if I could be happy. When I'm away from you there's this void in my life that seems to lessen, heal, when I'm near you, if you were gone, truly gone, I don't think I could survive."

"I appreciate the importance that you place on me when it comes to your life, but I know that you could move on."

"Ric… what are you saying?" Elizabeth was worried, and she had good reason to be, at least in her mind. "Are you saying you don't want to be near me anymore?"

"What?" Ric was stunned. His meaning had been twisted, turned into something that was not the intention that it should have been. "Of course not, Elizabeth. I'm just saying that you're a strong woman, you could move on if you needed to. I respect that about you. I don't intend on going anywhere. I want to stay here, to be with you, for as long as I possibly can be. In fact, I want to show you something."

"Something?"

"You'll love it, trust me," Ric took her by the hand once more and started to lead her away from the docks. "Come on, it's not that far."

A short time later they were both at the location that they needed to be at. Ric had put his hands in front of Elizabeth's eyes to keep from ruining the surprise. He had done so before she could even take a guess as to where they were, or where they were heading. "Watch your step, I don't want you to fall."

"Ric, what is this?" Elizabeth was growing anxious. She wanted to know what the big surprise was. She was like a child in that way, she hated waiting for surprises.

"I told you to trust me."

"I do trust you, but I just want to see what's going on!" She was giggling, her mind racing at the various possibilities. "I swear, if you got me a pony…"

"I don't think a pony would fit in here. Not to mention the smell." Ric dimmed the main lights as much as he could, keeping as much of the ambiance as was needed. Some of the things could light up, and they looked better when they weren't battling over the main light for supremacy.

"Well… I'm waiting."

Standing behind Elizabeth, his hands on her shoulders, he looked around. It still wasn't all that touching to him, but he knew that she would appreciate it. "Okay, open your eyes."

"It's about…" she stopped when she opened her eyes and saw the sights that she was looking at. She gasped as she realized what was going on. Everything that she had brought to Ric's apartment was in a place around her, from the angels to the reindeer and everything else in between. The pale ambers and other soft hues pierced through the darkness.

"Merry Christmas, Elizabeth," Ric whispered softly in her ear.

"This… this is just… so…" she couldn't find the words. Well, she could, but the words that she could find weren't the words that would properly express how she felt about the situation. It was more than the fact that she was touched, even though she was, there was so much more than that, and it showed on her face.

"Do you like it?"

"Like it?" She wasn't fighting back the tears. "I love it, Ric."

"Is it better than a pony?"

"Much better than a pony," she turned around and hugged him around his waist tightly. "I was kidding about the pony anyway."

"Good, because they're pretty hard to clean up after, and I don't think the lease I signed permits me having a pony."

"Why did you do this?"

"Because I realized how much it meant to you," Ric looked again. Seeing Elizabeth happy made him happy, but it didn't make him appreciate all the Christmas stuff that was now taking over his small apartment. "But… to be fair, I had help."

"What do you mean?"

"Damian. I called him earlier, had him help decorate the place… all the credit, Elizabeth, it goes to him. I'm not good at this sort of thing, you know that. If I had my way when it came to furnishing and organizing there wouldn't be anything but a bunch of papers and blankets on the ground. I wanted to do something that would touch your heart, but since I couldn't have a hand in it directly, I did in the next best thing, I called the one person other than you who I trust."

"I'll make sure to thank him for helping when I see him," she wasn't hurt that Ric had to find help from his nephew, that he couldn't do something on his own. At least he knew that he couldn't, and he found the help that he did. Ric usually wanted to do everything on his own, it showed that he was becoming better at accepting his own limits as a person. "But still, you were the one who gave him the idea, all of this, it came from your brain, Ric, not his… not even your mind, but your heart."

"I wanted to set the mood…"

"I'm sure you did that. It's very much like Christmas in this house now, something that I didn't think I would ever get to see."

"Not the mood for Christmas, Elizabeth," Ric admitted. "A different mood."

"Ric…"

"Elizabeth, just listen to me for a moment, please. I need you around me. I need to know that I have someone who I can share my life with, someone who can touch me in the way that only you can. I forced us to end our first marriage to one another because of my mistakes, because I pushed you away. I'm through pushing you away, I'm through keeping you out of my bed, out of my life. I don't have a ring, so I can't do this properly, but I know in my heart what I want, and what I want is you." Ric bent down on one knee, looking up at her, "Elizabeth Webber, would you marry me… again?"

Elizabeth knew that she had doubts. There were always doubts about any sort of relationship, but she also knew that the doubts did not outweigh the need that she had to be with the man that she loved. No matter what, she believed she could help Ric through his troubles. She knew her answer. "Yes, I will!" She fell into Ric's arms and kissed him, the soft light of her decorations basking on the two.


	36. Strange Visitors

Quatermaine Mansion, Interior-

He had been looking around at the people in the mansion. All of them were his family, all of them, on some level loved him and he returned that love in a strange way. Nobody would ever call the Quatermaine's a model family. Even if they were more average in the wealth sense, something that wouldn't work out very well for most of the people in the family, they would still be quirky and spiteful and all the problems that they had would still be there, aside from the financial greed.

They had finally stopped looking at him, and that was something that he was grateful for. Even his mother had finally managed to lessen her death grip on his sternum, breathing was still something that wasn't very easy for him. Dillon looked at the clock, wondering how long he had been inside the mansion. It seemed like it was an eternity, and yet it wasn't even half an hour.

"Do you need to be somewhere?"

"What?" Dillon spun around, looking at Emily and grinning meekly, trying to cover up the fact that he was counting down the moments until he could be free. He knew that if he tried to get out of the mansion now, Damian would stop him. But maybe he could club his best friend over the head with something blunt and heavy. His eyes continued to dart around while he looked for an object that would fit the bill.

"Are you okay?" Emily wasn't sure how to take Dillon's apparent scatterbrained methods. He'd always been a little odd, and that was putting it mildly, but he had never been so unfocused. He marched to the beat of his own drum, but that drum was constantly in tune, or so she believed. Maybe she was wrong.

"Huh?" Dillon really wasn't paying attention to Emily, something that he felt remorse for, but his mind was occupied on other things, and Emily didn't appear to be dying in front of him, so surely she could have been pushed aside, if only for a few moments.

"Are you on drugs?" Emily finally asked. "Because if you are, Dillon, and if Jason finds out… he won't be happy. Assuming he doesn't throw you out of his house in a matter of seconds he'll at least insist that you get some help, and if you are doing something, Dillon, you should get help."

"Emily…" Dillon heard the word drugs and was able to piece together the rest. "I'm sorry, this is just strange for me. Give me some adjustment time, please."

"Dillon, you lived here for years. This was your home long before Jason's penthouse became your home. You should always feel comfortable here. We all want you to feel like you're a part of this family, because you are." Emily loved her brother, dearly, and she was glad that Jason took Dillon in when he didn't have to, or probably want to, but the fact remained, Dillon should have been comfortable inside the mansion. It was as much his home as it was anyone else's. While the home may have belonged to Monica on the deed, it belonged to the family in spirit.

"I'm not on drugs," Dillon firmly stated. "Nor did I inhale the fumes from my hairspray on a dangerous level. I promise you, Emily, I'm fine. I was just thinking about how I'm going to get out of here."

"We're your family, you've been away from us, you shouldn't want to leave so soon," Emily was hurt by the fact that Dillon seemed to wish for distance so quickly. She knew the family could be a handful, but for him to just want to get away from them all, on Christmas Eve, was a slap in the face.

"I know you're my family, but I have other people that I enjoy spending time with. People who mean just as much to me as the Quatermaine's do. Is it wrong of me to want to spend some time with them, too?"

Emily was silenced. Who was she to prosecute him when, in truth, she wanted to be away from the mansion and in the loving arms of Nikolas more than anything else? If Dillon wanted to spend time with people that weren't Quartermaine's, then it was his right. "I'm sorry I jumped on you like that, it was wrong of me. But I miss having you around. I mean, who else in this family can appreciate foreign films with me better than you?"

"We had some good times watching those movies, didn't we?" Dillon found, of all the Quatermaines, sans Lila, Emily was the easiest to get along with, the easiest to talk to, the one that had accepted him into the family quickest when he arrived out of the blue. For that he was indebted, and the fact that they had a few things in common only helped make that bond even stronger. He looked at her straight in the eyes, "Tell you what, Emily, sometime… maybe after New Year, hopefully before I get off of Winter Break, we'll spend the day together, watching movies again. What do you say?"

"I'd like that," Emily hugged her dear cousin. "Whatever you do, don't let people push you away from us, even if we're the ones who are trying to do the pushing. You mean more to us than you think you do, try and remember that."

"Miss Emily," Alice walked in. Despite the fact that it was Christmas Eve, she was spending her time with the Quatermaine's. They were family to her, and she loved them all individually… except Tracy. Tracy she would love nothing more than to strangle. "Mister Cassadine is on the phone for you."

"Oh, I hope that he isn't calling to tell me that Luke shoved him out of the Spencer House and he's waiting alone in the cold without a jacket," Emily walked passed Dillon, her eyes showing the apologetic nature that she felt for leaving him so soon. "Thank you, Alice."

Dillon watched Emily go. He did take her words to heart, but he still didn't regret his decision. He needed to break away from his family, everyone needed to do that at some point or another. He was determined to make sure that he could do the same thing. Never mind the fact that he was living with his cousin, at least Jason let him live his own life.

Edward felt lonely, even surrounded by the many loved ones who were around him. None of them could replace Lila in his heart, not a single one of them, and they all knew that. Nobody could compare to Lila Quatermaine. His first Christmas without her, and it wasn't going well at all. Still, he was the Patriarch of the Quatermaine family, and he was expected to be strong and stable, he couldn't and wouldn't allow himself to break down, even when it seemed like it was the best thing to do.

"I kept my distance from you while you were being mobbed and then crushed to death by your mother," Edward walked up to Dillon, "but now, I think you can afford to humor this old man and give him a moment of your time, can't you?"

"I've got nothing better to do," Dillon sighed in defeat. He was going to get a lecture about how he needed to come back into the house, and cut his hair, and stop seeing Georgie. Maybe he did have something better to do, there had to be some drying paint on the walls.

"If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to hold it over my head?"

"That depends on the secret…"

"Wise answer," Edward said with a chuckle. "I can assure you that it isn't something that you can use against me, at least on any sort of professional level. But, as much as it pains me to admit this, Dillon… I missed you."

"Did someone spike your eggnog?"

"Nonsense, young man," Edward slapped Dillon on the back forcefully. "You added a degree of spunk to the house that has never been replicated by anyone else. I think it had something to do with your hair, maybe I was wrong to judge it so harshly."

"Monica!" Dillon looked over at Monica, "I think Grandfather's having a stroke! He's paying me compliments and not trying to come at me with the hair shaver…"

"Now look here, Dillon," Edward's voice got stern, as it often did with Dillon. He figured that it was intimidating to his grandson. Poor Edward was extremely misguided. "We've had our differences, but that's because we're two different people, it doesn't mean that I'm not fond of you, nor does it mean that I don't miss seeing you around."

"How much is my mom paying you to say this?"

"Stop that," Edward pleaded, something he never did, especially with Dillon. "You're making this moment very difficult for me, Dillon, and right now the last thing that any of us need is for someone to be causing problems. Please, just stay around… I'm not even asking you to stay for that long, but try and enjoy yourself, you look like you're searching for an escape route."

"Did you cover up that crawl space that leads outside?" Dillon grimaced, he'd just given up the information that he often used to sneak out of the house when he was under surveillance.

"Lila would want you to enjoy yourself," Edward noted softly and somberly. "It tore at her heart when you left… when you left without saying goodbye."

"I apologized for that," Dillon knew how much it hurt his grandmother when he left without saying anything at all. The first thing he did when he went to visit his mother after he had been 'exiled' was go up to her room and spend a few moments with her. "I just needed to get out of here as fast as I could."

"And when you heard what happened you came running. You didn't have to."

"Yes I did. She was my grandmother."

"Now it's my turn to thank you for something, Dillon," Edward smiled. "That tape that you made… the one that you spliced together using home movies that we took with Lila in them, it's become one of my most cherished possessions."

Blushing slightly at the compliment, knowing that it came from Edward's heart, something that rarely happened, Dillon gave a warm smile, "You're welcome. I thought that it was something that you deserved. Sometimes people question your motives, Grandfather. Sometimes they demonize you for no good reason other than the fact that you appear to be some callous heartless creature… I know I did a few times, but nobody would ever think that for a moment when they saw you with Grandmother. She brought out the best in you."

"She brought out the best in all of us." Edward agreed with Dillon's summarization of himself and his questionable motives. No matter what, Edward wanted people to know that he loved Lila with all his heart and soul, and he knew that people did indeed know that very fact. "Many times, when I think about your grandmother, when I feel lonely, I come downstairs and watch that movie you made. I had to have Emily teach me how to use that confounded DVD player that you seemed to treat like the Holy Grail. But it helps me more than you could ever know. I know I used to mock your love of movies, your dream to become a director… but seeing what you did with simple home movies, Dillon, I know that you can make a name for yourself, I know that you know how to touch the hearts of people around the world."

"Grandfather…" Dillon was stunned. He didn't know how to take all of the praise. He did the only thing that he knew was going to work, "Thank you… that means a lot to me."

Edward's gaze was sidetracked by another that was walking into the room. He returned his glance to Dillon, if only momentarily, "It appears that Justus has decided to join us, excuse me while I speak with him about some legal documents concerning ELQ's latest merger…"

"Grandfather, it's Christmas Eve…"

"Hence why it's the best time to strike a deal, Dillon," Edward's eye got that shine in it that happened ever so rarely, "people are in such a giving mood around this time of year. Please, don't go anywhere, at least stay for dinner."

"Sure," Dillon nodded before giving a shallow wave to Justus.

"Everyone's having such a wonderful time with you around them, darling, but I want to spend the most time with you."

"They all seem like they miss me so much…"

"We do miss you, Dillon," Tracy knew that she missed her son most of all. "What, did you think that we would all be celebrating when you left? We're a family, when someone abandons the family, it hurts us."

"And when someone in the family decides that they want to throw me out of the family, it hurts me," Dillon countered, somewhat snidely.

"How many times do I have to apologize for that? I told you, I was angry… it was an empty threat."

"And yet I still don't believe you," Dillon knew that his mother meant business when she tossed him out into the streets that day. He knew when Tracy was serious and when she wasn't, on that day, she was very serious.

"You can't seriously believe that we think you enjoy spending more time living with Jason than you do living here with your family… you can't even expect me to believe that Jason enjoys having you there!"

Another voice sounded from behind Tracy, "I've gotten used to it. I adjust quickly."

Tracy jumped at the sound of her nephew's voice, spinning around in a hurry, "Leave it to you… getting in so quickly and silently. If I didn't know better I'd assume that you were here to take one of us out."

"Not tonight." Jason's cold blue eyes looked at the gathered crowd. They were all standing there, looking at him like he was some sort of ghost. Probably because the ghost of Jason Quatermaine always lingered when he was around. That was one of the main reasons why he avoided being around his family as much as possible, but he had made the plunge, and he could only hope that he didn't regret it.


	37. Christmas With You

Corinthos Household-

What was it that everyone said about Jason? He tended to be right? That proved true, especially in Damian's case. If it weren't for Jason, he wouldn't have thought that he didn't do anything wrong when it came to how he forced the hands of both Dillon and Jason. Maybe neither of them wanted to go to the Quatermaine party… and they felt that they had to because of him. He had told himself that he gave Dillon a choice, but, really, how much of a choice did Dillon have when he was right in front of the mansion? A scant few feet away from the family that he always felt had shunned him. That wasn't a very nice thing to do, and it made Damian realize that he wasn't being the best friend that he claimed to be.

Luckily, now that Damian knew that he had a problem, the problem that came with doing whatever he could to make other people happy, something that was, incidentally, shared by Michael, he would try and do something to ward against it in the future. It was like his pre-New Years Resolution, one that he would work on before and after the New Year. But first, he had to content with the Christmas celebration. It would soon be over with.

Damian opened the door to the house and saw several people in the living room. Carly, Michael, Mike and Courtney. Sonny was nowhere to be found, but Damian could smell the aroma coming from the kitchen. He had been with his family for Thanksgiving, he knew that his father thought himself to be a splendid cook, which was true, and that he wouldn't be caught dead not making the Christmas Eve feast.

"There you are," Carly hadn't seen her step-son since they had their heart to heart conversation, and she was actually pleasantly content with seeing him walk through the door. The whole day she had been doing nothing but smiling, at least since after they talked, and it was because of him that she could claim it was the first time in a long while that she had a 'good day.'

"Am I late?" He shut the door, keeping the heat inside the house, and the smell. No need to have it get out and be scattered by the four winds, thus causing people to come crashing on their door, demanding some of Sonny's Cranberry Sauce. "Nobody gave me a time that I needed to be back… but I came as soon as I could."

"Michael was worried about you," Carly looked over at the boy, who was wearing a Christmas-themed sweater and still looking at all the presents, waiting for the moment when he could finally, finally have the one thing that he wanted in one of those boxes. Since Michael seemed preoccupied, Carly switched the story a little, "More like impatient… he likes having everyone together around Christmas, because we can only open presents when we're all here…"

"It's okay," Damian grinned as he watched Michael, who had seen him and smiled, but, really, his mind was more fixated on the gifts than anything else. It was understandable. "He's a kid, let him enjoy the holiday frenzy." Damian silently added the 'while he still can' part. Such innocence was fleeting, and it would be stripped from Michael eventually, something that Damian hoped he could help the boy through, and Morgan when the time came.

"There's my favorite grandson of drinking age," Mike beamed proudly.

"I'm your only grandson of drinking age…"

"Oh, I don't know about that," the elder man said smugly. "After all, we don't know if Sonny has any more kids running around the world, some might be older than you…"

"Don't listen to him, Damian," Courtney jabbed her father in the rib. She heard something pop, she hoped it was a bone. "Dad just loves to kid around. You should know that by now, you've been around him long enough."

"Mike Corbin, the Trickster God, present and accounted for," Mike was basking in the glow that he thought he would never get in his life. Surrounded by his children and his grandchildren. The only thing missing was Courtney's child, but he knew that was impossible. The baby, whatever it may have been, was gone.

"Where were you anyway?" Carly grinned at Courtney, but her question was directed towards Damian. "We all thought that you would be coming back right after the hospital party, but you didn't."

"If you needed me to come back home so fast, you could have called, my cell was all charged and everything."

"It's not that, just curious," Carly couldn't help it. She liked knowing where her family was at all times. She couldn't help being overprotective, she'd lost too much. Now, Damian was a part of that family that she wanted to shelter from pain and suffering. He looked fine, but appearances could be deceiving, she knew that.

"I had to do a last minute errand… so I borrowed Bobbie's car from the Hospital parking lot. After I finished the errand, I went to the Spencer house and dropped the car off. I would have stayed over there for a little while… but there was some guy screaming about Cassadines… so I gave the keys to Bobbie and ran as fast as I could."

Carly rolled her eyes, "Don't be afraid of Luke… he just likes to blow off steam, and he loves to do it when there's a crowd. At least he was with his family this year, sometimes he's not."

"Is dinner ready yet?" Michael's voice was half-whine, half-plead. They could only open presents after dinner.

"Michael Corinthos, I'm sure that whatever is inside those boxes can wait the precious few minutes, or hours…"

"Hours!" Michael didn't like the way that it sounded. Minutes were something he could deal with, but hours? Hours was not a fun thing.

"Just wait for the food to be ready, kiddo," Damian tried his hand. Carly was getting nowhere, someone had to do something. "Remember, Christmas is more than just presents, it's also about family."

"Where's Uncle Jason?" Michael knew that there was someone missing, a man that was as much a part of his family as anyone else in his family. Jason was more than an uncle to Michael, he was, at one time, Michael's father and he was always the one person that Michael knew he could talk to, even when he was afraid to talk about it with his parents or his brother.

"He had something that he needed to do, sweetie," Courtney didn't know where Jason went, and she was still rather grated on the fact that she didn't know. She hated it when Jason kept secrets from her. He never talked about the business, but that wasn't a secret, that was out in the open.

"He's safe, Aunt Courtney," Damian could sense the tension in her voice. "Trust me…"

"What do you mean?"

"It's not my place to tell you anything… he wouldn't like it," Damian didn't want, nor need, another chat with Jason in which he was displeased with his nephew. One was enough. Jason being disappointed was… scary. "Just believe me, please."

She wanted to know, but she knew that if she forced him to tell her it would only have adverse affects on him. Not without protest, Courtney gave up on finding out where her husband was… for the time being.

Before she could say anything else, Damian decided that he wanted to see if his father needed anything. He started to walk toward the kitchen, Carly caught him heading in the direction. "Where are you going?"

"To see if dad…"

"Oh, you don't want to mess with Sonny right now," Carly felt it was only fair. Damian had saved her sanity, it was her turn to save something of his, like his head, or some assorted fingers. "When he's cooking… he's in his zone, and his zone is some place that only he can be. He'll come out when he's ready."

"What's that book you're carrying, Damian?" Mike finally noticed the book that he was holding.

"Maxie's Christmas present," he held the book out. "Some assorted piano music. I don't know when I'll get the chance to use it, but if I know I'm going to be near a piano, I don't see the harm in bringing it out."

"You know, we've never heard you play the piano before," Mike figured that if he had a relative, a grandson, that was so musically blessed, he should at least be able to hear it, and proudly say 'that's my grandson.' "Hopefully, we'll get the chance."

"Yeah, maybe," Damian shrugged his shoulders.

"How come you got to open your present from Maxie early?"

"Michael!" Carly loved her boy… but every year… it was like he had a button that only came on during Christmas. But she was sure she was the same way, children were like that.

"Don't worry about it, Carly," Damian didn't mind. Kids had questions, and Michael had every right to ask them. "Michael, when you have a girlfriend…"

"I'll never have a girlfriend, I hate kissing!"

"Well… we'll say if it does happen, not that it ever will, but say sometime, eventually, it does… in some strange universe where the sky is purple and Unicorns run around the open range… it's hard for people to be with their boyfriends or girlfriends on Christmas morning because they spend time with their families, so they give their presents to each other before then… it's just as special as when we open our presents together as a family."

"Bird should be ready in a little over half an hour," Sonny came out of his safe haven, wiping his hands free from any residue that it may have accumulated. "Everyone better stay out of that general area… Max is off duty because of the holiday, so are all the other guards, but I'm still tough enough to take you all down…" he saw that his boy was home. Walking past Damian, Sonny briskly gave the boy a pat on the shoulder. "So, now that we're all here… we can decorate the tree together."

"Wait a second, Sonny," Carly stood up and headed for the upstairs section of the house, "I'll go grab Morgan, he can help, too."

"How was the party?" Sonny asked, looking at Damian.

"It was interesting…" Damian didn't want to tell them about the offer that had been made. They would try and force him into taking the deal up, he knew that, and he didn't want to do it. "Maxie in an elf outfit was something that I had to see at least once…"

"You'll be seeing more of it when you become a doctor. You'll go every year. Maybe, after Alan can't read the story anymore, you'll do it instead."

"Yeah, maybe…" maybe he wouldn't even become a doctor. Maybe he would become a doctor, but leave Port Charles. He didn't know. He wished he did know.

"Look, Morgan," Carly came back down with her infant son in tow. "You remember this, don't you? The Christmas tree! It'll look a lot better after everyone decorates it. You can help, yes you can."

"So… now what?" Damian wasn't sure what to do. How often had he celebrated Christmas with the Corinthos family? How often had he celebrated Christmas with an actual family?

"I think," Sonny pulled out an ornament, "that, in honor of this being your first Christmas with us, you should be the one who puts the first ornament on the tree."

"Dad…"

"I think it's a great idea," Courtney had seen the hesitation in Damian before, when they were decorating the tree at her house, she wondered if the same thing would happen here, at his own place.

Truly, Damian didn't really want to be the first one to decorate anything, or decorate anything at all. But he remembered what he told Ric, about how he did everything that he could to make sure that the other people who loved Christmas truly had a Christmas that they could care about, and it was in that spirit that Damian knew that he needed to at least do his part.

He took a sky blue bulb from the box and looked for a spot. The tree was bear, and apparently they did things differently, since the lights weren't even on yet, but who was he to object? Finding a place towards the middle of the tree, he put the ornament there, "Any objections… speak now."

There were no objections, and how could there be? Even if things didn't turn out perfect, they did it together as a family, and that had to say something, even for the Corinthos family.


	38. Unexpected Arrivals

Note: I do apologize for the lack of updates. Believe me, they weren't because of my own free will. My internet was gone for days… barely got it back right now. So, with the internet returned, so shall the updates. I do wonder about ya'll though, no reviews in a long time. Makes me sad… but, you get six chapters today.

Story-

Quatermaine Mansion, Interior-

Dillon was as shocked as anyone else to see that Jason of all people had returned to his ancestral home, the place that he didn't really like to be. Praying that there was a reason, Dillon ran behind Jason and crouched, "Please say you came to save me! Please, please, please!"

Jason rolled his eyes, "Get up, Dillon…"

"Are we leaving?"

"No," Jason didn't face his cousin, but since they were the only two people that were speaking, everyone else was busy gawking, who else could he have been speaking to? "We're staying… at least for a little while."

"He got to you, too, didn't he?" Dillon had a feeling that his dear best friend had managed to force the two most reluctant Quatermaine's back into the fold, if only for the night. "That's it… I'm returning his present."

"He'll apologize when he sees you," Jason walked away, hearing Dillon crouching behind him, trying to keep himself from being seen. "Dillon… if you don't stand up and actually enjoy yourself, I'm going to leave you here."

"Stay down, darling!" Tracy hollered. She liked the idea of Dillon being left with her. She liked it a lot. "I never thought I would say these words in my life, but for once, listen to Jason!"

Succumbing to the fact that he wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon, Dillon groaned and stood. For obvious reasons, the liquor looked quite appealing, but he didn't drink, nor did he want to start. Still, it was tempting. "You're my ride back home, I take it."

"I told him that I would take care of it," Jason moved away, finally seeing that Dillon wasn't going to follow him like some lost puppy dog.

"Who the hell are you talking about?" Tracy had heard enough of the cryptic code language. "You're talking about 'him' and 'he,' just say his name!"

"Somebody important to us," Dillon didn't want to drag poor Damian into the conversation directly. As long as she didn't know who it was, she wouldn't be able to make his life a living hell. "It doesn't concern you, mom."

"You're my child, anything that involves you concerns me…"

"Aside from tossing him out onto the streets," Monica had once again had her fill of Tracy. "You seemed to be so concerned with your son's wellbeing then."

"And how many of your sons live under this roof, Monica?" Tracy snapped back. "Oh, wait, I know the answer: none!"

"Don't start with me, Tracy…"

"What are you going to do? Choke me with a thermometer?"

"Enough!" Jason yelled, losing his temper, something that really only happened around the Quatermaine family, which was exactly why he tried to avoid the family on the whole. "I came here for a reason… and it wasn't because I wanted to watch you people do the same exact thing that made me want to leave the first time. We're all here for a simple reason, why don't we forget everything else that we're going through for just a few hours and remember exactly why we even tolerate each other."

"Jason's right, everyone," Emily had heard her brother's voice and had tried to get off the phone with Nikolas before it was too late, but it appeared that she didn't managed to do so in time. Still, he wasn't trying to walk out the door, there had to be something to be said about that. "If Grandmother were still alive today, she wouldn't let us squabble like this. We're here… all of us… because we all shared one very strong connection, our love of Lila Quatermaine. All of this screaming and belittling is only spitting on the memory of someone who deserves to be celebrated, not scorned. I came here to celebrate with my family, and come together with them after we lost the heart of that same family… but if we can't do something so simple as have a civil time together… then I don't know why any of us are even here."

"You're right, Emily," Monica hung her head low after a moment of long silence. She was doing something that Lila wouldn't have approved of. Even though Lila hated the way that the family tended to act all year round, she never stood for the usual Quatermaine antics around Christmas, it was a special time of the year for her. "We're being immature and foolish."

"But how can we help it?" Alan cusped his wife's hand. "We're Quatermaine's, it comes with the territory."

"I think, if only for a few hours, on this one night, for Grandmother, we could at least call a truce." Ned walked over to his little brother, the one who had really started the snowball effect, "We can give Lila one last Christmas present as a family. We all owe her that much. Wouldn't you agree, little brother?"

"Yeah…" Dillon looked at Ned, "I couldn't agree more. We should do this."

"When did this family turn into one big after school special?" Tracy asked, only to see each and every single person in the room looking at her like they were ready to silence her, for good. "What? I didn't say I wasn't going to go along with this little plan of yours. Watch… I'll prove it to you," Tracy took a bowl of candy canes and walked them over to Jason, "Would you like a candy cane, my dear nephew Jason?"

"I'll pass, thanks," Jason and everyone else in the room didn't buy Tracy's ruse, nor did they put any sort of level of sincerity on her, but they were all walking on eggshells, every single one of them.

"This is such a pleasant surprise," Emily walked over to her brother and gave him a big hug. "I didn't expect you to come back here."

"I have my reasons," he looked at Alan and Monica, Monica was holding back tears of joy. "How are you doing, Emily?"

"Well, I've had my rant for the day… so I think I'm good to go."

"Your rant was something that was needed, don't think otherwise," Jason looked down at her. "Lila would have been very proud of you if she heard you make that speech."

"She would have indeed," Edward and Justus came back into the room. They had also heard the arguing, and they were waiting for the fallout, but since it didn't appear to be something that was going to happen anytime soon, it was safe to come in. The doorbell rang, Edward turned into the hallway once more, "Alice, could you get the doorbell, please?"

"Don't tell me you guys ordered pizza again," Dillon had been to several Quatermaine thanksgivings, but he figured that there was at least a time when they could have a festive meal.

"Of course not, Dillon," Edward walked closer, "we only do that at Thanksgiving. Jason," Edward always beamed proudly whenever Jason was in the room, and he didn't know why, he was still very upset that Jason had chosen to leave the family like he did. "Welcome home, son…"

"Th…" Jason stopped himself. He was about to say 'this isn't my home' but he knew that it would be in poor taste and it wouldn't honor the memory of the woman that he was supposed to be honoring. "Thank you, Edward."

"Alice!" Edward called out once more, "Who was at the door?"

"You only get one guess." At the sound of the voice, Ned fell into a state of disbelief. She walked into the doorway, "And if you get it wrong, Edward, then I'm going to be very offended."

"Who let you in?" Tracy saw Lois. She wasn't happy. She never thought that Lois was good enough for her elder son, and she never would.

"I did," Alice walked in, "but she didn't come alone…"

The family watched as a younger girl stood next to her mother. She was looking at the faces, the only ones that she really knew were her father and her grandmother, who she had never met but had seen a few pictures of. It didn't matter. Like most children of divorce, Brook was just happy to be around her father again.

Ned didn't run, but he didn't exactly walk, it was more like floating in euphoria, over to his daughter. "Princess…"

"Hi, dad," Brook Lynn Ashton hugged her father for the first time in years. They had so much distance that was placed between them, but in that moment, none of it mattered.

Lois smiled, "I should be offended that I didn't get the first hug…"

"Why should you get any hugs at all?" Tracy countered. "You left my husband."

"Let's not get into that right now, shall we, my dear former mother in law?" Lois gave Tracy a cold glare, but knew that it wasn't going to intimidate her. "Because if we do, we'll see that you're not blameless in that."

"Lois… while it's always good to see you, why did you come?"

"You only get better looking with age, Alan," she smiled, but turned to look at Monica, "don't worry about it, Monica. I'm not looking to steal your husband away from you." The smile turned to something a little less festive. "I heard about Lila's death while I was touring with one of my groups across Europe. By the time I found out, the funeral was already over with. I'm sorry… all of you, I'm truly sorry for the loss that this family has endured because of Lila's passing." Ned was looking at her, holding his daughter's hand. She knew how much Lila meant to Ned, and she did wish that she could have at least tried to help him through his grief. "But… the tour is over now, we just wrapped up a few days ago, and I decided that I would come back here. I know all… well, most of you, but my daughter doesn't, and you're all her family. I always thought that I would have more time to keep Brookie alone to myself… but I was selfish, and because I was so selfish, she didn't ever get to know a woman that she had every right to know, a woman that I know loved Brook as much as anyone could."

"What is she wearing?" Tracy saw the attire on her granddaughter. "Why do you let her wear clothes that make her look half naked?"

"Because this is what people wear in this day and age, granny," Brook spoke up against Tracy, something that she had been advised not to, but she didn't see anything that she needed to be afraid of. "We can't all have grown up in the 40s like you."

"Oh, I like her," Dillon snickered, holding back an uproarious laughter.

"Hush, darling… if I were truly growing up in the 40s, you wouldn't even be alive right now."

"Is that who that is?" Lois asked, walking over to Dillon, "Little Dillon Quatermaine…" Lois knew that Tracy had another child, but it had been a long time. "Look at you…" she pinched his cheeks.

"Don't draw blood out with those things!" Dillon pulled away. Lois' nails were something else, something scary. He rubbed his cheeks, feeling the lingering effects of the pinch.

"Brookie, come meet your Uncle Dillon!"

"I can see him, ma," Brook saw Dillon. "Hey."

"Forgive her," Lois said smugly. "I tried to teach her manners…"

"How could you teach anyone manners?" Tracy scoffed. "You're from Benson Hurst!"

"I'll have you know that plenty of good people have come from that place!"

"Like who? Sonny Corinthos, maybe?" Tracy had already forgotten the vow that they made, but at the same time, Lois wasn't family, not anymore. "My poor granddaughter probably doesn't even get the benefit of public education! I knew that I should have done something to make sure that Ned got custody."

"Hey, old maid, step off your soapbox," Brook, who didn't always get along with her mother, wasn't going to let anyone badmouth her, either. "My ma does the best job that she can and always has. She's helped me through a lot… have you done the same for your kids? Last I remember, you shipped my dad off to some private school so that he wouldn't be a burden on you when he was growing up. Where the hell do you get off telling anyone how to be a parent?"

"Brook!" Lois pulled at her daughter's arm, "I told you… no matter what these people say, they're still your family, and you should respect them regardless. You do not speak to your grandmother like that. You leave such things to me."

"Why'd we even come here?" Brook asked.

"For her," Lois pointed to a picture of Lila that was in the room. "Lila loved you, Brook, we're here to pay respects to a loving woman."

Brook saw the picture of the lady. She remembered Lila, although it was only a vague memory at best. She remembered being held in Lila's arms… and her voice. Without apologizing to Tracy, since she figured she had done nothing wrong, Brook faced the other Quatermaine's, "Sorry about that… it's really nice to see all of you. I don't remember many of you… or any, really, but maybe we can change that."

Dillon and Jason collectively felt a burden lifted from their shoulders. At least they weren't the center of attention any longer.


	39. Presents From The Heart

Corinthos Household-

Boxes were scattered around the room in various places amid torn wrapping paper and demolished bows. The house was usually as clean as it could possibly be, but on Christmas Eve, all bets were off. It was odd, at least for Damian, opening everything on Christmas Eve instead of waiting until Christmas day like he had done every year in Los Angeles, but he was in a new town, a new state and he was in a new family, why wouldn't he have some changes in tradition? Besides, if Michael had to wait until Christmas morning to open his presents, odds were high that the boy was going to burst into flames or start a protest.

With the gifts opened, properly admired and everything in between, there was really nothing else that needed to be done. The excitement had finally taken its toll on the young boy, Michael's eyes were closed, his head placed gently on the cushion of the couch, holding his favorite new toy in a death grip. There was only the smallest smile on his face, but it was there. He was happy, and that was a large part of what Christmas meant to everyone, making sure that the children had a nice Christmas. In truth, it was the first nice Christmas that Damian had in some time, and it was because of the fact that he had so many people who truly cared about him, something that was hugely different from his family in Los Angeles. There, he was tolerated simply because he was blood. In Port Charles, he was accepted, he was appreciated.

Sonny approached his elder son, having ended a short conversation with his own father. He'd never admit it, but having Mike there with him made his Christmas better, too. Maybe he would admit it, maybe he should have, but he wasn't ready, at least not yet. "Why don't you take Michael upstairs?"

He found the request a little odd, and he thought that maybe his father was trying to get rid of him, but it was just a short trip upstairs, nothing that could harm a person. Carly was already up there, placing Morgan back to sleep. She thanked him profusely for the book that he had gotten the infant. Michael liked his video games, too. They all just hoped that he would play them on a sound level that wasn't too loud. "Okay," he complied with the request as he bent down, gently scooping his little brother in his arms. In a few years he wouldn't be able to do that anymore. In a few years, Michael wouldn't even want him to do that anymore. Maybe now, when he was young, he didn't resent his big brother… but what if the time came and he did?

Realizing that worrying about things that might or might not have ever happened did no good for anyone, he shelved the problem, hoping that it wouldn't return, hoping that the pain of rejection from someone that he accepted so fully into his life would never come to pass. Damian didn't turn on the light in Michael's room, the pale moonlight that pierced through the window was enough to show him where he needed to avoid stepping so he didn't trip on one of Michael's toys. Kneeling low, he used his free hand and pulled the comforter out just enough to place Michael comfortably in his bed.

As he covered Michael up, he heard the boy stir. Michael's eyes fluttered open, but they remained barely open at best. "I'm not tired…"

"Funny," Damian sat on the edge of the bed. It was a child's bed, so he was still close to Michael. "That whole falling asleep on the couch thing pretty much showed that you were tired to me."

"Well… maybe I'm a little tired," he yawned, adjusting himself so that he was comfortable.

"Go to sleep, kid," Damian grinned, getting off the bed. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Wait," Michael's voice was soft, but he had one last thing that he needed to know about, "did you like your presents?"

"Yeah, I did," he saw that the boy was content with the answer and that he could finally rest. Damian shut the door softly.

"You've always been so good with him," Carly had come out of the nursery and had been observing the whole conversation. She didn't need to judge Damian, or put any sort of weight on his ability to be a positive influence in her the lives of her children, but it was nice to watch someone else becoming a person that Michael could lean on. "Ever since that first day… I'm amazed at how easily you adjusted. If I didn't know better I'd swear that you were already a big brother."

"Michael and Morgan give me the chance to do something that I always felt I wanted to do, Carly," Damian had never had the chance to be a big brother before, it was something that he didn't exactly enjoy. People thought that being an only child made things so easy, but they were wrong. "I like helping out when I can, and with them… I don't know, I just feel that I have to do something for them, all the time."

"Morgan will depend on you, too," Carly looked over at the nursery door. Unlike Michael's door, it was open, just in case Morgan got fussy. "I'm sure he does already in some way, but when he gets old enough to talk and understand things, he'll look to you and to Michael."

"I'll do what I can for both of them," he just hoped that it was enough. "Come on, we should get back downstairs… or maybe we should just wait."

"Why wait?"

"Because, Grandpa's down there, with his two children, alone," Damian thought about the three of them downstairs. "Shouldn't we give them some time to just bond, a father to his children?"

"Mike isn't like that," Carly shook her head. "The gesture is nice, Damian, and I know that Mike wishes he could be alone with his son and daughter, but it's hard on him to be alone with just the two of them. His mind just keeps going back to the times that he failed both of them. It's pretty uncomfortable for him. He always says that all he wants is acceptance from his children, but what he really wants is acceptance from himself, something that he's probably never going to get because of the way that he judges himself. We'd be doing him a favor going back downstairs and hopefully ending something before it started, or before it got too ugly."

"You're right," it was hard to admit it. Not because he hated admitting that Carly was right, she was right quite often, but because what she was right about was something that he wished she wasn't right about.

As the two walked down into the living room once more they saw Courtney and Mike picking up the remains of the Christmas mayhem. Boxes were stacked, wrapping paper stuffed inside each individual box, bows bunched together. What had once been a war zone was slowly starting to look like a regular living room once again.

"You didn't have to do that," Carly appreciated the effort, it gave her less to clean, but she knew that if they did it at someone else's house she wouldn't lift a finger to pick up the mess. As it was, she was more than willing to just leave the mess there until someone else came to clean it.

"Well, it was better than sitting around here doing nothing," Mike winked at Carly. "Sonny's forbidden us to follow him."

"Follow him where?" His wife was unsure of what Sonny was planning, and whenever that happened it was something that she really didn't like. Sonny kept secrets and when those secrets came out it usually didn't mean anything good for her.

"He's just over there, Carly," Courtney pointed towards the back of the house. "I don't know what he's got planned, but he wanted it to be a surprise for everyone."

The man in question walked into the living room, smiling profusely. "Oh, good, you're all here again. I wanted the boys to be up for this, too, but there's really no reason that we should wake them up, besides, they're probably a little too young to appreciate this."

Carly's eyebrow went up as she tried to decipher Sonny's cryptic message. "What are you talking about?"

"I guess you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" Sonny wasn't about to give away his special surprise. It was really only for his son, but everyone else could see it, he wanted them to see how much he cared for Damian. "Come on, let's go."

They followed Sonny, Courtney and Mike being the first to see what they had been kept unaware of. They were both shocked, but it was a pleasant surprise. Carly was also stunned when she saw what was there. "Sonny…"

"Well, dad… what…" Damian stopped himself when he walked into the room. There were two items that were stored in the corner and while both meant something to him, he was certainly more taken by the portrait. His mother. "M… Mom…"

Grinning, Sonny knew that his gift had the intended response from his son. "You didn't think that those clothes I got you were the only thing you were going to get from your dad, did you?"

"How…"

"You remember that day I was gone for most of the day, last week?" Sonny looked at the picture. Ana-Maria was beautiful. She deserved better than what she got. She deserved better than him. "I went to Los Angeles and I went to see your grandparents. I wanted to do something special for you, Damian, but I didn't really know what I could do. I didn't go over there looking for help, at least not for a gift idea… but I knew that they would be the ones who would help me find something, anything, that would help capture the essence of your mother."

"She's beautiful," Courtney wiped away a tear. She knew that Sonny was a caring individual, but his current display showed just how much he could do.

"Victoria said that it was her favorite picture of her daughter. I gave them a portrait, too. They lost their daughter, I felt that it was only right."

Damian was touched, deeply touched. "You didn't have to do that, dad."

"I know," Sonny stood next to his son, "but I wanted to. Remember what you told me, about presents? About how they should come from the heart more than anything else? This is what I wanted to give you, what I felt I needed to give you." Sonny hugged Damian, "Merry Christmas, son."

Damian wasn't sure how he was going to take the gesture. He loved the picture, he loved the way that she looked. He was just numb from everything. He would survive, because he wouldn't let himself give up, and it wasn't like he didn't think that it was the most touching thing that his father could ever do for him. Maybe it was just seeing her like that… beautiful, healthy, the way that he always wanted her to be, but the way that he knew she would never be again.

Mike broke the silence, "You think I could take you up on that offer, Damian?"

"What… offer?"

"The piano playing."

"Oh… right…" he didn't even notice the piano, the picture was just so engulfing, but when he forced himself to think of something else, the piano did come into view.

"If you can't do it right now, I understand." Mike just figured that it would get his mind off the picture, touching as it was, it probably brought back more than a few painful memories.

"Maybe he shouldn't," Carly liked the picture, but she wasn't sure how she was going to take having the woman that had given Sonny his first son looking at her constantly, that was a title that used to be hers. She hoped she could deal with it. "I mean, I'm sure he's good at the piano, but Michael and Morgan are sleeping right now. We don't want to wake them up."

"She's got a point," Damian agreed. He didn't want to wake them up either. "How about a rain check?"

"Sure," Mike nodded.

"I'll be right back," Damian headed out of the area.

"So… that was where you went," Carly remembered wondering where Sonny had taken off to. "You went to Los Angeles, and you didn't tell anyone."

"I wanted it to be a surprise, to everyone… I didn't want him to get any hints. The piano was purchased earlier today, that's why I didn't let anyone come into this area, not just because of the kitchen."

"Well, I'll say this, Sonny, you are nothing if not a master strategist," Carly was glad that it wasn't anything dangerous. "What you did for him… it really took a lot of personal strength. You should be proud of yourself."

Damian came back in with something wrapped in his hands. "You're not the only one who needed to get help from my grandparents, dad." He held out the item, "Here… take it. Open it."

Sonny looked at the gift cautiously before doing as he was asked. He didn't know what it was, but when he opened it he had an idea. "A baby book?"

"Mine," Damian informed his father. "Well, not exactly mine, but I had them make copies of everything that was in the baby book that they have. They didn't want to lose it… so we compromised. There's more in there, too. Pictures of me when I was growing up, yearbook pictures and the like, report cards… just the random stuff that normally wouldn't mean that much to us… but since our relationship is hardly normal…" he watched as Sonny thumbed through the book, "You said that you wanted to get to know me better… I figured this would help."

Sonny closed the book, he would look at it… look at it many times over. "This is… one of the best gifts that I could have ever gotten, only a few things are better… like knowing that you're my son. Thanks."


	40. No Need To Apologize

Harbor View Towers-

They were in the elevator together. Both were amazed at how long they had actually managed to stay at the Quatermaine Mansion, how long they were able to tolerate the smugness and superficiality of the family that they had chosen to remove themselves from. But they were also both, at least on some level, happy that they had made the choice that they did. Dillon still cared about his mother, and he had always cared about his brother and Emily and everyone else, seeing them made him feel good.

Jason, on the other hand, really only felt fully comfortable around Emily and Dillon, but he managed to get in a few moments with the various members of his family. They were all being cautious around him, he knew that. They were all afraid that if they said something wrong he would just leave them and never come back. He wished that he could say that it was true, but he knew that something would always pull him back. They were a part of him, no matter how much he tried to deny it.

As the elevator brought them both up to the penthouse level, Dillon turned to look at Jason, who was staring at the door, vacant blue eyes shielding any sort of thought. "So… did you have fun?" The teenager waited a few moments, but he never got an answer from his elder cousin. "Right… Jason Morgan doesn't have fun, I forgot."

"I'm glad that I went," Jason's monotone voice took Dillon by surprise. "Is that a good enough answer for you?"

"I've learned to take what I can get with you," Dillon leaned against the wall of the elevator. If he pissed Jason off while they were both in the elevator he really didn't have anywhere that he could run, and he knew that climbing through the top hatch of an elevator was never as easy as the movies made it seem. "But I'm happy that you didn't at least hate the time that you spent with the Quatermaine's. Brook and Lois coming really made Ned happy, I'm glad. I know how much he missed his daughter."

"He should have made an effort to see her more."

Slightly taken back by the coldness of Jason's response, Dillon went on the defense, "It's really not that simple, Jason. I mean, Lois…"

"If Ned really, truly loved his daughter, Dillon, then he would have done everything that he could to make sure that he saw her as much as he possibly could. Ned's got enough money to always be able to fly to wherever she was living, but he didn't. All I know is that… if our baby survived, the one that Courtney and I would have had… and if something happened between the two of us that made us split up and made her move away I would never let my child think that I was too busy or that I didn't care enough to be a constant in that child's life."

"Wow," Dillon felt extremely uncomfortable, he had a feeling that he had touched a nerve, something that finally made Jason Morgan… vulnerable. "I guess I never thought about it like that." He didn't fully believe Jason's reasoning. In fact, he knew that Ned really wanted to be in Brook's life, but there were always things that were keeping him away, but they could have been pushed back. Jason had some valid points.

"Ned might be getting a second chance at establishing a connection in Brook's life," the elevator stopped and the doors opened, "I just hope that he actually takes advantage of it."

Dillon nodded his head, "I hope so, too."

Jason saw someone else in the hallway, sitting on the ground. "What are you doing up?"

At first, Dillon was wondering who Jason was talking to, but he finally moved away from the corner of the elevator. "Damian?"

Without getting up, but tilting his head up, Damian saw the two, "Hey…"

Jason had a feeling that Damian was looking for some alone time with his friend. He knew what it was about, too. "I've got something I need to check up on." He lied, but he was a good liar. How were they to know that he had nothing that he needed to check up on? Unless they knew more about his life than they were willing to let on. "I'll probably be busy until the morning. Goodnight." He walked into his penthouse and closed the door.

Dillon felt the tension in the air, if his hair wasn't already spiked and pointed up then it would have been by that very tension. "Why are you up so late?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Couldn't sleep." Damian knew that it was more than that, and he knew that Dillon had a right to know, "Guilty conscience."

"What are you talking about?" Dillon sat next to Damian. "Did you and Maxie have a fight or something?"

"No, Maxie and I are fine. This is about me… and about how I sometimes take away options from people when I think I'm trying to do the best thing for them, that I'm trying to help them out because I think I know better."

"Who do you do that to?"

"You…"

"You don't manipulate me." Dillon didn't think that he was ever being manipulated by his best friend. His mother most of the time, sometimes Georgie, maybe even a few times Mac, but never Damian.

"Yes, I do," Damian was happy that Dillon didn't think that he was being manipulated, but that didn't mean that he wasn't. "I told you that I was giving you a choice to go be with your family tonight, but I didn't really. I only told you that when you were right in front of their door and when I knew that there was no other way that you would say yes. Even if you said that you wanted to come back here, Dillon, I would have kept on talking to you and telling you that you needed to be with your family."

"Because you knew it was the right thing…"

"I still should have given you the choice," he cut in. "I'm your best friend… or at least I like to think that I am, but I'm not really acting like it most of the time, am I? I'm not a parent… and even if I were I don't have the right to force people to make decisions just because I think that they're the right ones. I shouldn't have imposed myself into the relationship that you have with your family, it's not my place to do so."

"Why are you doing this?" Dillon asked. "It's not like you to be so… hard on yourself."

"I'm always hard on myself, but I wasn't hard on myself for that… at least not until I had to face the truth about what type of person that I am."

"I don't think you did anything wrong," Dillon hated seeing his friend beating himself up for something that he didn't even understand. "In fact, I was going to thank you for nudging me in that direction."

"You would have reached your own conclusion…"

"Yeah, and it would have been me staying in the penthouse, alone, on Christmas Eve. If it weren't for you… I don't know, I wouldn't have had fun. See? Manipulating me helped me…"

"But it still wasn't right. I guess it's just because I didn't want to be the reason that you severed yourself from your family, especially your mom."

"You're not the reason…"

"I'm not?" Damian could only disagree. "If I wouldn't have gotten into that accident, gone to the hospital, been in that near-coma like state for that night, you would have never needed to make the choice that you did. I am the reason, at least partly, and if you just stopped being around your mother, Dillon, I would have never forgiven myself. So… from now on, I'm not going to try and make you see your family, or make you do anything else. You're my best friend, but I haven't exactly been treating you like I should have… it's going to stop, it needs to stop."

"I'm worried about you," Dillon admitted. "This… the way that you're acting…"

"I'll be fine," Damian reached over and grabbed a box, "catch."

Dillon caught the box as it was thrown towards him. "What is this?"

"Your Christmas present… but don't think that I'm giving it to you now as a bribe for forgiveness… its Christmas. If you don't want to take it, or even if you do and you don't want to forgive me, I'm fine with that. At least I didn't give it to you before I told you everything, right?"

"There's nothing for me to forgive."

"Then I guess everything is on me," Damian was thankful that Dillon didn't hold him at fault, it made his life a little easier, but it was still going to be hard for him to forgive himself. He was never good at the self-atonement. "Go ahead, open your present."

Dillon, who hadn't gotten any gifts from the Quatermaine's since they didn't really do the whole gift thing, went and tore at the wrapping with great anticipation. "Movies?"

"What else was I going to get you?" Damian asked. "I thought about getting you that board game with the movie clips on the DVD, but I knew that nobody would play against you since you would always beat them… if you have those movies we can return them… but I looked at all the movies you did have, didn't seem like they were on that list."

"They're… foreign films."

"Like the ones that you saw at those theaters when you were in Europe with your mother. Subtitles are your friend, Dillon."

"This is great, I mean it… thanks."

"No problem," Damian finally stood. "It's past two in the morning… I should really get some rest."

"Wait," Dillon requested. "I want you to know that I had a lot of fun at the party… I mean, Jason was there, but I want someone that I can talk to about it. You think you could hang with me just a little longer?"

"You want me to?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Dillon put the movies down, "You're the one who thinks that you did something wrong, I don't think that. You're still my best friend, and right now I need one of those to chat with. But, if you don't want to… I guess I wouldn't want to manipulate you into feeling obligated."

"You're going to use that against me for the rest of my life, aren't you?"

"Or at least until I'm too old and senile to remember," Dillon shrugged nonchalantly. "It was so cool, Damian. My ex-sister-in-law and my niece came around unexpectedly. She's almost my age… we've never met before. You should have seen her, though. She had this whole punk rock girl look going on, black eyeliner and the like. She even stood up to my mother."

"Well, that's probably because she doesn't know just how bad Tracy can be. Ignorance is bliss, as they say."

"You stand up to my mom."

"Only when I need to," Damian pointed out. "And even when I do, it takes a few days before I get the conversation out of my head and I can sleep without having a nightmare."

"Now you're just being sarcastic…"

"Maybe. Probably." A moment passed and he chuckled, "Yeah, I'm being sarcastic."

"The whole time we were there, she was coming back with the snappiest remarks to everything that my mom threw at her, it was amazing. Lois really must have prepared her for her first meeting with the Quatermaine's, because she didn't miss a beat."

"Sounds like you've got a role model… in your niece, who is younger than you. And I thought that having an Aunt who isn't even five years older than me was odd."

"I wonder how she'll adjust…"

"Is she staying?"

"I don't know," Dillon couldn't say. He wasn't a mind reader. Perhaps Lois and Brook would only stay for a few days and then they would leave again. He hoped not. He wanted to get to know his niece, she really did seem like a cool person. "If she does stick around, I'll introduce her to you."

"That would be great, Dillon, I'd be happy to meet your niece." He liked meeting new people, sometimes… he wasn't exactly a people person, but if Dillon's niece was as cool as Dillon was setting her up to be, then there really wasn't any problem that he had with seeing the girl, maybe hanging around with her for a few hours. "What else happened?"

"Just the usual Quatermaine drama," Dillon smirked. "I didn't even know how much I missed it until I was away from it and then I ended up getting back into it. But I'm still happy that I'm not living there anymore. See? I'm happy here, and that's a decision that I made all on my own."


	41. Dream Device

Christmas Morning, Morgan Household-

If there were carolers in the early hours of the morning odds would be high that the last place that they would ever seek to be around would be the penthouse towers. It would be neigh impossible for them to even get up to the level that they could be heard. In a way, Courtney was saddened by that fact. She liked Christmas Carols just as much as the next person, even if they were sung off key, especially if young children were involved. She had foreseen her and her baby doing the same thing a few times during the holiday, at least until the child was old enough to not want to do that with her anymore. But, like so many other dreams that came with the child, they were gone, stripped from her without even a word.

Jason hadn't waited up for Dillon and Damian to finish their conversation. It wasn't his place to listen in, but he certainly hoped that his speech to Damian did sink it. He knew the intentions were pure, but like so many things in life intentions weren't enough. Nobody knew that fact better than Jason Morgan.

Jason got up from the bed and stood, seeing his wife's head turned in the opposite direction. Her hair flowing so beautifully down the sheets, like velvet. He loved Courtney's hair. That wasn't to say that he didn't love everything about Courtney, or almost everything, but her hair was certainly a big plus mark in her favor.

Unbeknownst to Jason, Courtney was actually awake. She had been awake for some time. When she heard him heading for the door she thought about keeping quiet, but she realized that she couldn't do it, not this time. "You're just going to leave me alone again?"

Jason stopped, turning around to see Courtney, who was in the motion of sitting up in the bed, using the sheet to cover her even though she was in her nightgown. He wasn't sure how to take the question. It seemed like she was angry with him, but he didn't know why she would be. "I didn't know that you were up, Courtney. I was just going to take a shower."

"Jason, please, don't go." She sighed. "I know that I told you I would never ask where you were, that I promised I wouldn't get involved… but the way that you left yesterday… I just need to know. Please, tell me what happened."

"I told you it wasn't dangerous…"

"Which is why it's scaring me so much, Jason," Courtney admitted. "Can't you see that? Every time that you go out you don't say anything, but this time you tell me that what you're doing isn't dangerous. I know you wouldn't lie, but it makes me wonder what could be so important that you left to do something that wasn't dangerous." She hated being this way, especially with him. Jason deserved better than this, but her curiosity had, at least in this instance, overwhelmed her desire to keep her husband happy.

Knowing full well that the lack of information was eating at his wife's very being, Jason sat down next to her in the bed. He waited for a moment, giving her time to calm herself as much as she could. "I went to go see the Quatermaine's, Courtney."

"What?" She didn't hate the idea of Jason seeing his birth family, in fact, she was in favor of it, but it was still a shock to her. "You went to go see them, and you didn't think that I would understand?"

"I didn't want you to be worrying about me while you were spending time with your family on Christmas Eve…"

"I wouldn't worry about you."

"Yes you would," Jason corrected her. "I know you, Courtney. I know that you would have worried about me, at least on some level, and it would have distracted you the whole time that I was there. You would wonder how I was taking everything in that happened at the mansion. You would wonder if anyone said anything that would try and trigger my memory, even though we both know that it's never coming back. You would wonder if I would decide that I wanted to go back into their lives. Courtney, you would act the same exact way that I act whenever I'm around them. It's nearly impossible for me to not worry about myself when I'm around them. They'd never hurt me physically, none of them, but they would hurt me emotionally… and they often do, that's something that even I can't really deal with."

Courtney listened to her husband's speech. He was correct, of course. He had guessed what she would have been thinking about. She barely had a good time with her own family because she was so worried about him, but if he had told her that he was going to see the Quatermaine's it wouldn't have been possible for her to even have that good of a time with her father and everyone else in her family. That didn't mean that she still didn't wish that she had known. "We could have went together."

"You had plans…"

"They would have understood that I needed to be with you," she put her hand on his cheek softly. "Jason, my family means the world to me, you know that, they mean the world to you, too. But you're my husband, you're the man I love, you're the person that I have to protect above all others." If she had a child that child would be the person that she needed to keep safe, but they no longer had that option.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you," Jason put his hand over hers. "But you know that if I could do it again I would do the exact same thing that I did last night. Courtney, that's just the way that I am. You need to accept that."

"I know," she turned her head away. "Maybe someday I will. I love you, Jason, but there's always going to be a part of you that you keep from everyone but yourself, and that part of you is the part that I really want to know."

"It's the part that you can't know. Nobody can know that part of me… not even myself."

"So what happened?" Courtney changed the subject back to the visit with the Quatermaine's, now that she knew, she was genuinely interested in the outcome of the event. "Wait… before you even tell me what happened, why did you go?"

"Our nephew dragged Dillon to the mansion for their Christmas party, and while he was convincing Dillon to go inside and be with his family he just happened to hit my cell phone on his speed dial so that I could hear the conversation myself." Jason still wasn't pleased with those actions, but he understood the motive. "That was why I picked up my phone last night, he called, I thought he might have needed my help… I should have just let it ring."

"Maybe it was an accident…"

"It wasn't," Jason shook his head. "I asked him, Courtney. Damian admitted that it was part of some grand scheme to get the Quatermaine's together. We had a short conversation because he left. It was more me talking to him and him listening."

"What'd you talk to him about?"

"I told him that he had no right to try and manipulate any of us into doing something against our will. Dillon, myself, anyone else. I told him that what he did was wrong, even though he thought he was doing something that was in the best interests of everyone involved."

"Were you angry?"

"Of course I was angry. I'm still angry at him, Courtney. Knowing me, I'll probably never be able to trust him again… at least not in the way that I was starting to. You know how much I hate it when people try and get me to do things, when people take away the options that I have. It reminds me too much of how I was after the accident, and I don't want to be that person anymore."

"He didn't know you before you got in the accident, or even right after," Courtney didn't know why she was defending Damian, but she was. She understood that what he did was, on some level, wrong, but that didn't mean that Jason had the right to demonize him. "He just wanted you to be happy… you and Dillon."

"Dillon and I can make ourselves happy without anyone's help," Jason hated fighting with Courtney, and it was worse because it wasn't even something that involved both of them. "I told him the truth, Courtney. I told him that I appreciated the sentiment and the fact that he cares so much about me, but I couldn't say that he did the right thing, because he didn't."

Courtney remembered the way that Damian was acting, especially right after he arrived home after he was apparently at the mansion. It seemed like something was wrong with him, and now she knew what. "I'm sure you got the point across to him, Jason. You should have seen him after you talked to him, he was crushed."

"I didn't mean to be so hard on him… but I won't apologize for saying what I said."

"You don't need to," Courtney moved the sheet away. "You told him how you were feeling, that's what he's always wanted, honesty. Maybe now he'll try and be a little less honest, or expect less honesty from people."

"Courtney, can we not do this right now?"

"Do what?"

"Fight."

"We're not fighting," Courtney denied the fact that they were at least having a difference of opinion. "We're done, Jason. You were right, he was wrong, you got your point across, I found out the information that I wanted, everyone's happy."

"You don't seem happy."

"Well maybe I'd be a little happier if I knew that my husband trusted me enough to tell me that he was going to see his family!" Courtney snapped, moving out of the bed. She could see it in Jason's eyes, he was hurt. "Look, Jason… I'm sorry. I really don't want to do this, either, especially today. All I'm asking is for a little more consideration when it comes to doing simple things. I've been with the Quatermaine's before, plenty of times, both with you and with AJ. I know how to handle them. You don't need to protect me from people who wouldn't even try and hurt me. I'm a big girl, I can stand up for myself."

Jason didn't know if he could do what Courtney was asking. He would certainly try, but there would always be that part of him that didn't want her involved with that part of his life, the same part that didn't even want himself to be involved with them. "How did your night go?"

"If you take away the needless worrying, it went pretty well," she moved over to the window, looking out through the drapes at the snow covered roads. Nobody was out on those roads, everyone was inside, together. It was Christmas. She smiled, feeling the spirit embedded inside of her, the anger slowly being siphoned away from her being. "You should have seen Michael, Jason… it's like, he's reached this whole new level of happiness now."

"I've always wanted Michael to be happy," Jason got off the bed and went to his wife's side. "I'm glad that he was."

"Sonny was happy like that, too. You could see it in his eyes. Every time he gets a new child he just becomes a different person, a better person. He'd have been perfectly content with Michael and Morgan… but I think, especially after everything that happened with Damian, Sonny looked at this as something more than it would have been otherwise. It was his first Christmas with all his children. It was special to him."

"This is special to me," Jason wrapped his arms around Courtney's waist. "Looking out the window with you, just talking, alone. This is all I've ever really wanted from Christmas, to be with a woman that I care about with all my heart and soul. You're that woman."

"But we're not alone," Courtney looked up at him. "We're alone right now, but we've got a teenager who happens to be sleeping a few doors away from us." She smiled brightly as an idea came into her head, "Why don't we give him his present right now?"

"Courtney…" Jason returned the smile, it was infectious, even to him. "It's early in the morning, I'm sure Dillon can wait a few hours for his present."

"Come on, Jason… he deserves his gift. He's had a tough time adjusting, we all have… besides, I want to see his face when he opens it! Please…"

"All right, you win," Jason followed Courtney out of the room.

"You wait right here," she said as they passed by Dillon's room. "Make sure that he doesn't wake up. I'll go get the gift." She tiptoed, trying to act like a spy or something. It took Jason everything that he had to not at least chuckle.

Slowly, Jason turned the knob, looking to see if Dillon was even in the room. He was. Sleeping, his hair naturally frazzled. Jason knew that Dillon wasn't his son, and he would never think of Dillon as such, but Dillon was under his protection, just like Courtney, Michael and everyone else. Jason would do whatever was needed to keep Dillon safe.

Courtney came up the stairs with the wrapped box in her hands. She put her index finger up against her lip as she walked into the room. Jason followed behind her, neither making more than the slightest of sounds. She handed the box over to Jason gently as she reached over and pinched Dillon's nose, the childhood tactic to wake someone up, it never failed her before.

Like clockwork, it had the effect on him that was intended as he struggled for breath and opened his eyes, arms flailing about at random. Groggily, he asked to nobody in particular, "What?"

"Merry Christmas!" Courtney grinned.

"Sleep good… Christmas wait…" Dillon tossed his sheet over his head.

"I guess you don't want your present then…"

The sheet was thrown forward faster than it had been drawn back. "Present?"

"Here," Jason handed Dillon the box. "This is from both of us."

Dillon looked at the box for a moment before his hands tore at the paper like it was nothing. When the box was freed from its paper prison, he opened and saw the contents. "A digital camcorder?"

"So you can make movies," Courtney sat next to him. "I know you want a bigger budget, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?"

"Thank you both… so much," Dillon hugged Courtney, his mind racing with the possibilities. He looked up at Jason, who was smiling and who nodded. It wasn't a hug, but it was something.


	42. The Battle Begins Anew

Corinthos Household, late morning-

There was the single problem that came with opening the presents on Christmas Eve, there really wasn't anything to look forward to on Christmas Day. But, the children were happier quicker and they stopped complaining about now being able to open their presents sooner, so the sacrifice that was made in favor of tradition was a small one at best.

Sonny had been looking at the baby book for most of the night. He usually didn't get that many hours of sleep, but the time that he spent between interacting with the people in his life and trying to sleep was usually just met with him either walking around the room as quietly as possible so he didn't wake Carly up, or laying there in bed. Silent. Brooding.

Such wasn't the case after his family had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Sonny had something that was thoroughly engrossing. A past. His son's past. A part of Damian that hadn't really been expressed and discovered by Sonny. That was going to change. He had wondered why the Zuniga's didn't comply with his request for some old pictures of his son when he had asked them during his recent visit. He knew that it was partly insensitive, but Sonny had as much right to seeing the boy that his son once was as anyone else. When Elias and Victoria denied his request he only assumed that it was because they were still hurt by the events that had led up to Damian's birth. He didn't blame them, it was something that he would never forgive himself for, either. Just another bullet in the long list of reasons that Scully, his former boss, had to die.

But now Sonny knew better. They didn't give him the pictures because they knew that it would have ruined the surprise that Damian had in store for him. There were only rare moments in time when Sonny Corinthos found himself speechless, but Damian had managed to prove he had a knack for finding a way to do just that. Sonny was speechless when Damian made the claim that they were father and son, speechless when Damian found out about the lies that Sonny had told, speechless when Damian first called him 'dad.'

Even then, hours after the gift had been received, Sonny was still going through the pages of the book, looking at each little page, every single word that was written, looking for the tiniest details. He wanted to be a good father, and he knew that he was thought of as one, both by himself and by those around him, but if he was going to be a better father for the son that he had only known for less than a year he needed to know more about Damian, and he had been given his chance.

Carly slept peacefully on Christmas Eve. She had many demons that would make her rest less than pleasant, but Damian's gift to her made at least one of those demons go away. It didn't solve the problem completely. If Sonny found out about what had happened, her part in the whole ordeal, she knew that he would leave her forever, and she didn't blame him. Damian may have forgiven Carly for her mistakes, but Damian would forgive people much easier than his father.

"Look," Sonny pointed to one of the pictures in the book, grinning, "don't you think he looks like Morgan right there?"

Carly examined the picture carefully. Before she would have hated her son being compared to Sonny's son, but now she didn't mind. She did see the resemblance, the tie that linked both of them to Sonny. "It's the nose."

"I hate being faced with all the time I missed," Sonny lamented. "Look at all of these pictures, Carly. I should have been there… each time one of these pictures was taken I should have been right there beside him, I should know when each of these was taken, the exact location, why… everything."

Carly understood Sonny's pain. He would always beat himself up much quicker than he would beat up anyone else. "Sonny, don't do this. Don't turn the gift that your son gave you completely out of love into something that you look at with any sort of scorn. Damian wouldn't want that, I don't want that and I know that, deep down, you don't want it either."

"You're right," Sonny was glad that he had his wife to anchor him, anchor his sanity. Someone that he could depend on. His ears perked up as the faint sound traveled through the house. "Guess he's giving that new piano a good workout."

"I still can't believe that you gave him that…"

"Carly, it's not like he doesn't know how to play it. You're supposed to feed a child's imagination, especially if they have some sort of musical talent. Instead it was being squandered because of what happened with his mother. He deserves a chance to play again. He told me before that it was one of the only times that he was ever happy. I just want to give him something back."

Carly listened to the tune, her eyes wincing. "Are you sure he knows how to play it?" The notes weren't very fluid, and that was putting it mildly.

If it weren't for the fact that the piano was safely concealed behind a corner, Sonny and Carly would both realize that the less than fine tuned sounds that were coming from the piano did not originate from Damian's hands. Far from it, he was merely smiling as he sat on the bench next to Michael, who was pressing down on the keys frantically.

Michael finally stopped after a few minutes. "How'd I do?"

"For a first timer… you've got a certain style that is all your own," that was the nice way of putting it. The very nice way. But Michael was untrained, it wasn't his fault that his attempts at playing the piano were met with less than pleasant results. "But we all started like that, I guess. Most of us at least."

"Did you start like me?"

"No," Damian moved Michael's hands out of the way. "I started more like this," taking his palm and putting it directly over the keys, Damian pushed down and ran back and forth.

Michael had yet to try that particular style of playing the piano, but he followed suit. There was at least some degree of tune that came after that. "This is fun! I can see myself doing this all the time."

Damian didn't mind his brother enjoying the piano. He embraced that Michael was trying something new, but he also knew that if Michael continued to do such a thing over and over someone would eventually come to the conclusion that the piano needed to go. He didn't know how long he would have with the piano in the first place, given that he would be starting school again and his free time would once more be limited, but he didn't want to lose the baby grand so quickly.

"Michael," Damian said softly, "instruments are fun to play, but they're also very delicate. You have to have some sort of training in order to use them properly and have the most fun with them."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he spent a moment looking for something that he could draw parallels to from Michael's own interests. "You know how you play ice hockey?"

"With the skates and the sticks on the ice…"

"Yeah, but if you didn't know how to skate you wouldn't be able to have as much fun playing ice hockey, would you? You'd be falling a lot and you'd probably spend more time trying to get up than you would playing the actual game. You could still have fun, but it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?"

Michael thought about it. Before he learned how to skate he had fallen more than a few times. He hated it when he fell, he hated it a lot. It wasn't fun to him until he learned how to skate. If he didn't know how to skate, then it wouldn't have been any fun at all. "Show me how to have some fun with this… the right way."

Damian nodded at the boy, "It'd be my pleasure." He took out Maxie's book of sheet music, which seemed like a much better present now that he had a piano than it did when he got it, not that he didn't like it regardless, but he could get more use out of it. She'd be happy to know that. Damian thumbed through the pages, looking for something that wouldn't bore Michael to tears. It had to be something that he could identify with. Finally coming across something that might have worked, he put the book in its place. "Did you like Aladdin?"

"I loved Aladdin! The Genie was so funny!"

"This is how A Whole New World would sound on the piano."

Michael's face scrunched up, "I didn't like that part, it was way too mushy."

"Work with me here, kid," Damian requested. Michael would eventually see that mushy wasn't bad, it could be quiet good. "I'll need you to turn the page for me when I tell you, okay?"

Back in the living room, Carly's fears were quelled as she heard a familiar tune coming from the other area of the house. It didn't sound that bad. She heard a knock on the door. "Who could that be?"

"I don't know," Sonny got up, putting the book on the table. "I didn't ask anyone to come over, did you?"

Carly shook her head, "Maybe it's my mom, though. I don't know why she wouldn't call…"

Sonny opened the door, his body covering Carly's view, but she knew who it was the second she heard that strong, obnoxious Brooklyn accent squealing and she saw those tacky nails wrapped around her husband.

"There's the best childhood friend a girl could have ever asked for!" Lois kissed Sonny on the cheek. "I missed you so much!"

Sonny returned the gesture. Lois was one of his best friends. "Lois… I didn't know that you were in town."

"I sort of just came through… unannounced."

"You have a knack for that, don't you, Lois?" Carly shot at the woman. Lois was never her favorite person, in fact, they barely got along for Sonny's sake. Carly always had the urge to just slice Lois up with those damned nails of hers.

"I'm sure that another spar between the two of us can wait until after Christmas, Carly," Lois winked. "Now's a time to be with family and friends. I already saw my family, and now I'm here to see my dear friend."

"Please, come on in," Sonny held the door open. He didn't want his wife and his friend to get into a catfight, but there was always that option.

"Hold on, there's someone I want you to see," Lois turned around. "Brookie, come on!"

Brook sighed and walked up. She had no intention of seeing her mother's friend. Yes, Sonny may have been around her a time or two when she was a baby, but she was hardly a little girl anymore. She didn't even know why she allowed herself to be dragged to the Penthouse. She wanted to spend time with her dad, that was the whole reason why she agreed to come along in the first place.

Lois stood behind Brook, who was looking at the ground. "Sonny… look at how much my little Brook Lynn has grown!"

"Ma!" Brook glared behind her shoulder, "You're embarrassing me."

"She's beautiful, Lois," Sonny could see the resemblance. "But then we both knew that she would grow up to be a beautiful young woman, didn't we?"

"Can I still take you up on that offer you made to keep her safe from the bad boys that we used to see running around the streets at night?" Lois asked coyly. "Brookie here knows how much I hate those bad boys… which is why she flirts with them the most."

"You used to do the same…" Sonny countered. "Maybe it's just something that she got from you."

"Now don't you go and drudge up that part of my past, Sonny Corinthos!" Lois pushed her daughter into the house rather forcefully. "Brook, this is Sonny's wife, Carly."

"You didn't tell her about me?" Carly smiled, but it wasn't a genuine smile. "I'm surprised."

"Actually, I did tell her about you, quite a bit… but only when I wanted to give her an example of what kind of person she didn't want to end up as. You're like her version of the boogeyman, Carly."

Brook wasn't interested in her mother's latest petty squabbling match. She had something else on her mind. The sound of music that was filling the air. She looked to Sonny, "Where's that music coming from?"


	43. Pushed Aside

Lois had always had a keen ear for music, it was a trait that she had apparently tossed over to her darling daughter. Ned may have given Brookie the voice, but Lois gave her the sense. Together, they had made a daughter that could truly make an impact in the music world, if she wanted. Lois had pushed her daughter time and time again to try and start doing something musically related, but Brook, for whatever reason, didn't want to go down that path.

No matter how much Lois thought her daughter was making a mistake she also knew that pushing Brook into doing something that she didn't want to do was only going to lead the teenage girl somewhere that neither of them wanted her to be. Lois had a few jobs that were important to her, but none of them were as important as being a mother to her daughter. A good mother, as good of a mother as she could possibly be.

Sonny beamed proudly, "My son's playing the piano I got him for Christmas." It was the first time that Sonny had ever expressed pride in his oldest child's musical talent, based on how he felt after that original encounter, he had a feeling that he would be doing it whenever he got the chance. Was it wrong to be proud of his son? Sonny didn't think so. "Here," Sonny started walking towards the area where the music was coming from, "why don't you meet him."

Lois was next to Carly, something that she didn't exactly enjoy, but there was nothing that she could do about it, just like there was nothing that Carly could do about it. Lois had a feeling that Carly was enjoying the situation just as much as she was, which was to say that they weren't enjoying it at all. "I didn't know that your little Michael could play the piano." Lois hadn't spent much, if any time with Michael, but she had heard some stories from Jax. They still kept in touch as much as possible, even when they were thousands of miles away. Jax was the type of guy that she could have called with a problem and if she was in Peru or some other country he would be there in a matter of hours for her.

"He can't," Carly corrected Lois, "at least he can't do it yet." Who was to say that Michael didn't have the talent to play the piano in an impressive way? She didn't want to try and squander the boy's potential, that would be bad parenting.

Lois didn't understand. Sonny had said that his son was playing the piano, but then how was his son playing the piano so well if Carly had just admitted that Michael couldn't? "But…"

"You know what, Lois," Carly cut her off, knowing where the question was going to lead. She was going to ask about what Sonny meant, and Carly didn't really feel like explaining. "Why don't you just find out what's going on for yourself." The explanation would be long, and it would keep Lois around for a greater period of time than Carly would have liked to permit. As it was, Lois had already overstayed her welcome in Carly's eyes, but Sonny would never throw his friend out, or allow her to be thrown out.

"I'll do that," Lois nodded. "You know, Carly, you really shouldn't be so spiteful and angry, it doesn't look well on you… makes your eyes get bags around them."

"When the time comes to hide the bags around my eyes, I'll come straight to you. You almost look like you're not a woman pushing forty… almost." There was a theory about Carly and Lois: They would have been the best of friends if they managed to survive through hating each other. So far they hadn't yet gotten to that point in their barely safe acquaintanceship.

Elsewhere, Damian had finished with the song, or almost finished. He was on the last row of musical notes to read from, and in a matter of seconds the tune of the piano had silenced itself, just a faint memory.

"I liked that," Michael was glad that he was spending some alone time with his brother. It seemed like that time had been severely reduced without his permission. Michael coveted the moments where he could be alone with Damian and they kept on happening with less and less frequency. He was always studying, or with Dillon or Maxie.

"You did a great job turning the pages when I needed you to," Damian was completely unaware of Michael's apathy. He always tried to set aside time to be alone with Michael, and he would eventually do the same when Morgan was old enough to actually need him. By then maybe Damian wouldn't have such an all consuming fear about dropping his baby brother. "You can pick another song, if you want."

"Sure!" Michael was delighted and he grabbed the book. He didn't understand what the notes meant, but he could read the title of the songs and if it was something that he knew and he liked then he would ask for that song to be played.

"Why don't you pick another song in a few minutes, buddy?" Sonny walked in, followed by the group of ladies, all of varied ages. "Right now there are some people that I want you to meet."

Damian could see that Michael was distraught. He did his best to comfort the boy, "Don't worry about it, Michael, we'll get another chance. It's still early in the morning."

"Boys," Sonny addressed both of his children, "I want you to meet someone who is very special to me." He stood next to Lois, "This is Lois Cerullo. She's one of my best friends and has been ever since we were children. She's a large part of the reason why I managed to survive growing up."

Lois blushed, "You always know how to give a girl too much credit…"

Sonny laughed softly, "I always thought that I never gave you enough."

Damian saw a side of his father that he had yet to see. He knew that Sonny had friends. Jason was one of his best friends, and they were always together, but there was a tie that he could see between Sonny and Lois that was only theirs. He wondered how Carly took the relationship. One look over at his step-mother showed that she wasn't exactly the biggest fan.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mrs…"

"Miss," Lois corrected Damian as politely as she could. She was never a Mrs. Cerullo. There was a time when she was Mrs. Ashton, but that was a long time ago. "And, please, call me Lois."

"Hi," Michael tried to sound upbeat and positive, but it was rather hard. He was still disappointed in the distraction.

Lois smiled at the younger boy, "You must be Michael. I knew your father when he was your age… quite the troublemaker he was."

"Let's not get into that, shall we," Sonny tried to cover up his tracks. Certain exploits of his childhood were best left between the people that were there at the time it happened, and aside from him and Lois everyone else fell into the 'don't need to know' section.

"I wouldn't mind hearing stories from your past…"

Sonny glared at Damian, not coldly, but enough to get his attention, "You tell me yours first."

"Touché."

Lois looked at the two men. She didn't know about any sort of relationship that Sonny could have had with the younger man. "I don't mean to be rude…" she could hear a scoffing sound that she knew to be Carly. She ignored it. "But I honestly have no idea who you are."

"He's my firstborn," Sonny said.

Lois didn't take the news in an unexpected way. A man that was quite possibly her oldest and dearest friend had a child that was now at least in his late teens and she had never been informed? "Your…"

"Dad didn't know about me, Lois," Damian came to his father's aid. It was always hard on Sonny to admit that he had 'failed' when it came to being there for Damian. Damian figured he owed it to his father to help out as much as he could. "He didn't know my mom was pregnant with me and I went twenty years without being around him. But I'm here now… that's what's important, right?"

"I guess so," Lois thought about Sonny. Even as a child it was so important to Sonny that he be there for his children when he had some. The fact that he had missed out so much on one of his sons' life must have tore at him. She had a feeling that Carly was of little help. "And here I thought I was the only one that had a child that was of driving age. You've got one who can vote… and drink."

"Lois heard you playing the piano…"

Lois once again found herself correcting someone, this time it was Sonny, not one of his children. "Actually, I was so distracted by seeing Sonny again that I wasn't even the one who noticed it. My daughter did. Say hello, Brook."

Brook put up a hand and waved it slightly, "Hi."

Lois was studying Damian's face. She knew that Michael was adopted. She didn't hold that against Sonny, in fact, she was one of the people who was most proud of Sonny for giving his love to a child that wasn't even born from him, but Michael had no genetic connection to Sonny, so he wouldn't look anything like his father. Damian, on the other hand… "You look quite a bit like your father, you know that. Were you a teenage heartthrob like him?"

"Hardly," Damian got an inner chuckle at the idea of himself being a popular person growing up, having loads of girlfriends. It seemed like the farthest thing from reality, probably because it was. "I didn't really have many friends… or admirers growing up."

"You probably just didn't notice," Lois surmised. "Your dad was like that, too. There was this girl that had the biggest crush on him, and Sonny was so clueless about it. Broke her heart, too."

"Lois…"

"What?" She shrugged her shoulders, "You and I both know that Rhonda thought you were the greatest thing since David Cassidy."

"Sonny doesn't like drudging up useless tidbits from his past. If you knew him as well as you claim you do, you would have known that." Carly knew that having Lois around for longer than ten seconds was a mistake, and she was just being proven how right she was.

Lois actually agreed with Carly. She thought that she had crossed a line that she shouldn't have crossed. Rather than admit that she was wrong, especially to the woman in question, she changed the subject. "So…"

"Damian."

"Thank you. Your father didn't say your name. Damian, you were the one playing the piano, I take it."

Damian nodded, "Dad got it for me for Christmas, it was a surprise."

"You were pretty good," Brook paid the boy a compliment. "I mean, Disney movie tunes are a little tired and childish, but you played the song well."

"I'm sure he could play other songs as well," Lois didn't want the poor boy to have his self-confidence shattered. She wasn't gauging his musical abilities, at least not yet. "Why don't you play another song for us… show us how much range you have as a pianist." Lois saw the book of sheet music on the stand and she grabbed it.

Michael glanced at his brother, "I thought I could pick the next song…"

"You can still pick a song, Michael… but Lois is a guest, you'll still be here when she leaves."

"Here's one," Lois put the music back on the stand. "Classic Beetles tune."

"Let it be?" Damian looked at the title. Of course he had heard the song before. "Michael, you want to turn the page for me again?"

"I'm going to go play my new video game…" Michael didn't feel comfortable around everyone. He was the only kid in the room, and it was a fact that he didn't much enjoy being made so apparent.

"Here, sweetie, you can show me how it works," Carly could see that Michael was hurt. If she needed more reason to dislike Lois she had just gotten it. She would have to speak with Sonny about the intrusion issue a little later.

"I can turn it," Brook walked over to the bench, "you don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all," Damian didn't care. Fingers were fingers. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

Damian looked at Lois and Sonny, both were interested in hearing him play again. He'd never really had an audience before. He'd played around his mother, his grandparents, Maxie and now Michael, but they were all people that he felt comfortable around. That wasn't to say that he didn't feel comfortable around his own father, but Lois and Brook were people that he had barely met. Still, he began to play as well as he could, the jitterbugs would just have to be left alone.


	44. Powdered Sugar

WhiteCamellia- A review! Beams With Happiness Thank you for taking the time to review and I am glad you are enjoying this… per your request, here's an update. Only one, since I can do daily updates again…

Scorpio Household-

Georgie was sitting on the couch in her living room, several of her new presents lying harmlessly on the ground below. Christmas to her was always something that was special, but it was made even more special when she met Dillon. She still remembered their first Christmas together, the way that they acted when they tried to give each other the gifts that they picked out. They were so nervous. It was hard to believe that they'd come so far… yet it seemed like not that much time had passed.

She glanced over at her sister, who was on the recliner. How did Maxie feel about it? This was her first Christmas with Damian. Did it go well? She hadn't asked, but maybe it was time that she did. "Maxie…"

Maxie was reading the letter that Zander had written her again. She didn't know how many times she had read it, but there was still something that she wanted to see. She knew that Damian didn't lie to her… he wouldn't, right? The letter had to come from Zander.

Georgie was alarmed when she didn't get an immediate response to her beckon. She also wondered where her sister got the letter from. As always, Georgie's mind swarmed with possibilities. Had Damian broken up with her on Christmas Eve? Was that what the letter was about? They looked like they were happy together at the hospital party, but maybe it was just an act. "Maxie!"

Maxie lifted her bright blue eyes up, "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Georgie didn't believe Maxie. Why should she have? "I know you better than that, Maxie, you're not fine. You should be able to tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong, Georgie, I swear…"

"I would tell you if there was something that was bothering me, why can't you do the same?"

"Georgie…"

"You know you can talk to me about it," Georgie got up, leaving her new PDA on the couch. She could program it with all the stuff that she would need to be successful in the final semester of her high school career later. "Is there something going on between you and your boyfriend?"

"Why are you doing this?" Maxie was already being annoyed by her darling little sister. Gerogie was supposed to be the mature one, not the one who was asking the questions that she didn't need to know the answers to.

"Because you're my sister, and I love you…"

"I love you, too," Maxie was genuine. No matter what, she would always love Georgie. There were times that they drove each other crazy, the times had lessened when they finally grew up and became young women, but there were still plenty of times that they wanted to strangle each other, even in their teenage years. Maxie also realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her sister. "You're not going to leave me alone until I tell you something, are you?"

"Nope…"

Groaning, Maxie handed the letter over, "Fine… read this."

"I can't believe he broke up with you in a letter," Georgie was thinking that her theory of a breakup letter was legit. But Maxie appeared to be taking the breakup much better than Georgie would have thought, and for that she was quite proud of her big sister. She could see that Maxie had matured.

"Broke up?" Maxie didn't know what Georgie was talking about, which happened quite often, given the intellectual differences between the Jones girls, but she doubted that it was something like that given the context.

"Damian… this letter isn't from him?"

Maxie laughed, albeit softly. "Damian would never break up with me in a letter, Georgie. I hope he would never break up with me period, but if he did I know that he would do it to my face. Just read it."

Georgie, now much more intrigued with the contents of the letter, began to read. "This… this is from Zander. How'd you get this?"

"Damian gave it to me last night. He said that he knew how much I worried about Zander, so he had someone find Zander… wherever he is, and write me a letter telling me how he is."

"That was very thoughtful of him."

Maxie smiled proudly. She knew how thoughtful it was, and she knew that Damian must have really cared about her to do something like that. "I know… but I'm worried."

"Zander says that he's fine, Maxie," Georgie handed the letter back. "What more could you ask for?"

"What if it wasn't really Zander?" Maxie asked. "What if Damian knew that it was bothering me and he just had someone do this… maybe he did it himself… to make me feel better?"

"I don't think he would do something like that to you. He really cares about you, Maxie. He know how much you care about Zander. Most guys would be jealous of something like that."

"What if he's really jealous, too?"

"Maxie… he's not like Kyle."

"I know that!" Maxie wished that her little sister wouldn't have brought up Kyle. That was easily one of Maxie's biggest mistakes, perhaps her biggest. If she would have never gotten involved with Kyle then she wouldn't have started drinking and doing drugs. He was her snowball effect, and he was gone now.

"What I meant by that is that Damian respects you as a person. He knows that you have friends that you care about and some of them might just be the same gender as he is. Most guys would be very hostile towards their girlfriend having a relationship like you had with Zander. But Damian doesn't want to lose you… he wouldn't do something like forge a letter and say that it was from Zander, he knows how much that would hurt you. He gave you that letter, that gift, out of love… don't turn it around and make it something that is hostile. He deserves better than that, and so do you."

"I guess…"

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Georgie could see that her little pep talk really wasn't having the intended reaction.

"No, I believe you," Maxie didn't want her little sister getting involved in any more of her problems. Georgie was always the one to bail her out of the mistakes that she had made. Maxie was technically an adult now, she needed to do those things on her own. "I'll ask him myself, Georgie, I promise. He wouldn't lie to me, not to my face."

"And what happens if you end up being right?" Georgie wondered.

"I'll be hurt, of course," Maxie didn't like to think of the possibility, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there. "I know that, if he ended up doing it himself, he did it out of love for me… but he shouldn't have done something like that. But if he tells me to my face that the letter was truly from Zander Smith, then I have to believe him."

"Only you could turn something so tender and touching into a vendetta…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Georgie backtracked, "I just wish that you wouldn't think of the worst possible outcome in life."

"I wish I didn't do that too, but I can't help it. Sometimes I think about him, Georgie, I really think about him and I wonder how much influence Sonny is having on him. I mean, he covered up everything that happened at the docks."

"Because he didn't have any other choice!" Georgie defended Damian… against Maxie. That was one of the last things she ever thought she would have to do. "And he didn't really lie to you about that, he told you what you needed to know, what he could tell you." Georgie looked around for Mac. She could hear him clanging pots in the kitchen. Still, she kept her voice down, "Plus, he was completely honest to you about what happened with Lorenzo Alcazar."

Maxie nodded. Damian had been forthcoming about his role in Alcazar's murder. None of them held him at fault. Damian had been kidnapped, injured, near helpless, along with his Aunt who was also in danger and Alcazar was about to kill his father, which would followed up by Lorenzo killing Damian himself. Nobody would have done any differently in that situation.

"You've got yourself a keeper, Maxie," Georgie smiled. "I mean… he's no Dillon…"

"We're not getting into the 'let's compare our boyfriends' game again, Georgie."

"Because you know that you would lose."

"Oh, do I?" Maxie grinned. "You said it yourself… and besides, how many lives has Dillon saved in a diner?"

"That doesn't mean anything…"

"See?" Maxie jabbed at her sister coyly, "You know that this time you would lose."

"Why don't we just agree to a tie?"

"I can agree to that. We've both got the best boyfriends that we could ever want." It was the truth, too.

"Maxie, Georgie, come on!" Mac's voice could be heard echoing from the kitchen, "Breakfast's ready!"

Mac watched as his daughters walked into the kitchen. He loved spending Christmas with them. It was like spending it with Robin, only the connection was so much stronger with the girls. That didn't mean that he loved Robin any less, but it was mere fact. He could see them growing up each year as they came to the table on Christmas Morning. Now, they were both mature young girls. But that didn't mean that they were too old for tree shaped pancakes covered with powdered sugar.

The girls took their respective seats at the table. They both loved it when Mac wasn't up bright and early in the morning, but it was also somewhat haunting. They were used to their dad being awake before they were, dressed and shaved. As it was, Mac was still in his pajamas, too. But even the Police Commissioner managed to take Christmas day off.

"And here we are with the traditional Christmas breakfast…" Mac put the plates on the table, "I hope that this is something that you continue to share with your own children… when you have them. In at least twenty years."

"You want us to have children when we're almost forty years old?" Maxie shook her head. "Come on, dad, isn't that a little extreme."

"By the time you're forty, Maxie, maybe you'll finally be mature enough to handle a child of your own."

"For your information some people happen to think that I'm very mature." Maxie stuck her tongue out at her father, mocking him.

Georgie was giggling, "Who, Maxie? The voices in your head? Pass the powdered sugar, please."

Maxie passed the sugar, but her hand jerked at the wrong moment and a gust of sugar ended up going into Georgie's face. "Sorry!"

"You did that on purpose!" Georgie didn't mind, she was still laughing.

"I didn't, I swear!"

"Liar!" Georgie took the powdered sugar and sprayed some on her sister's face. "There, now we're even."

"You did that on purpose, Georgie!" Maxie also wasn't angry, but she wasn't going to back down from a powdered sugar fight. She tried to grab the can, and a tug-of-war began between the sisters over the powdered sugar container.

Mac stood up and got in the middle, "That's enough, both of you. You're trying to tell me how mature you are and you're behaving like little girls!"

The Jones' looked at each other, a mischievous glisten in their eyes. They knew what they were going to do, and in an instant their plan was enacted. Mac found himself covered in the white powder as well.

Wiping the sugar out of his eyes with his fingers, Mac looked at them both, "You're going to get it now!"

They could all be heard laughing as Mac chased his daughters around the kitchen, trying to douse them in powdered sugar. There would be a mess to clean up later, but at that moment it didn't matter. They were being a family.


	45. The Right To Choose

Ana- Thank you for reviewing. I always feel quite bad when people discover the story some huge amount of chapters after it started. God help you if you had to read the first part, too. But nonetheless… thank you for the compliments on how I use the characters, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't feel that I could convey the characters in a believable manner. Dillon and Tracy are two of my favorites, if not my favorites. Faith is certainly up there. However… there is no plan for a miracle baby to grace the arms of Journey in this story. Dillon's more than a handful, the hair gel budget alone puts a dent in their expenditures. If you want to get technical, Carly in 'Woe' is very much more accepting of Damian than Carly was in 'Shadows.' Their relationship is complex, and a lot of fun to engage as a writer. But… Sonny probably won't find out. I don't want him to find out. If I end up wanting him to find out you can be sure it will come at a very dramatic moment, but don't be banking on that secret coming out right away. Think of it like the Kristina paternity test. I know that the characterization that would come with the revelation would be lots of fun, but right now my plate is pretty full. Look for Brook to cause more drama than Lois, but Lois is loads of fun.

Corinthos Household-

It had been a long tedious visit, at least for Carly, but there was finally the time when Lois and her daughter left. She had nothing against Brook Lynn. In fact, the girl seemed to be quiet and non-intrusive, two things that worked in the teenager's favor, especially given who she was birthed out of. But Lois… Lois was another story entirely. Some would say that it was simply because Lois was quite possibly the only person who knew her husband better than she did, and Carly wouldn't lie, she was jealous of Lois and Sonny's relationship, even though it had never gone beyond being nothing but a deep and binding friendship. Or maybe it was because Lois and Carly were just so alike that they couldn't be in the same room without annoying the other. Whatever the reason or reasons were, Carly did not like Lois.

She was even less thrilled about Lois and her impromptu visit when she realized that Lois had, at least on some level, hurt her son. Carly didn't exactly blame Lois, she couldn't have known how precious time with Damian was to Michael, having just met them both, but she should have been more aware of the boys feelings. Perhaps because Lois only had a daughter she didn't notice those things, but Carly did.

The blame could not be placed entirely on Lois. No, the Corinthos men were welcome to a part of the blame as well, and Carly wasn't going to let them remain ignorant to that fact for very long.

"I hope you're both happy," she said blankly as she walked into the back of the house, where they had still been.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Damian didn't know what Carly was talking about. Why was she being so hostile?

"I just saw one of my best friends, why wouldn't I be happy?" Sonny asked, also unaware of his wife and her temper. Instead, he focused on the boy, "So, what'd you think of Lois?"

"After I spent a few seconds adjusting to her accent…"

"I used to talk like that…"

"Well, we'll be thankful that you stopped talking like that by the time I met you," Damian couldn't see Sonny with such a thick accent. It was a very alarming vision in his mind. "You're hard enough to understand on the mental level, dad, I'd hate to see what it would have been like if you would have spoken with that accent, I think I probably would have run away when I first met you."

"You did run away when you first met me…"

He wouldn't forget their first encounter. On the docks, after he had just gotten done speaking to Faith. Even thinking about that woman sent a chill down Damian's spine. She had almost killed everyone that he had cared for, both in Port Charles and Los Angeles. "Can you blame me?"

Carly couldn't believe how nonchalant they were both being. Sonny's son and Damian's little brother was genuinely hurt and they were too blind to see it? It was past time that someone opened their eyes, and Carly was the only person who wanted to take that job. "All right, enough!"

Both men were taken off guard by Carly's outburst. Not that she didn't have outbursts frequently, but the one she was having at that moment was unexpected.

"What's the matter, Carly?" Sonny asked. "Did you not get everything you wanted from Santa Clause?"

"Don't even try to humor me right now, Sonny Corinthos, because it isn't going to work!" Carly tried to keep her voice down, she knew that Michael could hear her if she was yelling, the same with Morgan. She didn't want to hurt Michael further, nor did she want to wake her baby up. "You should both be disgusted with yourselves. I trust you both with my son… and yet I'm the only one who can see how hurt he is right now. Do neither of you care that Michael felt like he was being pushed aside while you two were busy trying to impress Lois and Brook Lynn? The way you were both looking at her it was like she was the only person that mattered in the world, but I've got news for you, she doesn't matter. Nobody matters more than your family, and Michael is a part of that family by your own respective choices…"

"What are you talking about?" Sonny didn't appreciate the rant. Carly telling him that he didn't love Michael was something that he never wanted to hear. Who was she to even attempt to judge him and how he felt about a boy that Sonny knew in his heart was his son?

"That's exactly what I'm talking about…" Carly scoffed.

"Carly," Damian was less infuriated with his step-mother than his father, but he still didn't like the accusations. Rather than be angry, though, he tried to think back to find out what he did that was wrong so that he would fix it. "You need to be a little more specific here…"

"No, I don't," Carly shook her head. "You're both the ones who need to take a good look at yourself…"

"Carly, please," Damian cut her off before she started spouting off more nonsense. "You want us to reevaluate ourselves, but we don't know what we did that was wrong. Just give us something…"

"Don't bother," Sonny told Damian, "when she gets like this she's not going to give us any sort of information."

"You don't deserve it," Carly was still seething with anger and pain in her heart. "You made my son feel like he was nothing to both of you. I'll admit that there are times when I can't drop everything and be there for Michael and I hate it when that happens, but I at least own up to my faults, I don't just go on with life like nothing wrong happened. That's why I'm so angry with both of you right now… I know you love Michael, but I want you to act like it."

Sonny had to hold his own anger in before he let it get the better of him. He didn't know that he would have been able to if it weren't for the fact that one of his children was sitting mere feet away from him. Yes, Damian was an adult, he could handle it, but Sonny still didn't like being so erratic around any of his kids, regardless of age.

Carly left very much in the same way that she had come in. Sonny shook his head and braced himself against the piano. "Who does she think she is? Thinking that I don't care about my son? I love that boy so much…"

"Dad…"

"My friend was here, someone that I haven't seen for a few years. She came here with her daughter. What was I supposed to do? I've only got so much attention that I can give… I can't talk to my friend for a few minutes without hurting one of my children?"

"It was my fault," Damian stood up.

Sonny blinked. He didn't think that either of them were truly at fault. He had a feeling that his son was just trying to put the blame on someone, and since he was such a kindhearted person he would gladly place it on him, even when he didn't deserve it. "What are you talking about? It wasn't your fault."

Damian wasn't going to let his father just alleviate his guilt like that. "Dad… I think I know why Michael was hurt. I told him that we could keep on playing the piano together, and almost right after I said that you came in with Lois and Brook and then Lois started going on about how she wanted to hear me play something…"

"Lois is in the music industry. She wanted to see how much talent you had. Can you blame her?"

"No, I can't," Damian didn't think that it was Lois who was to blame, although if she hadn't have come over then it wouldn't have happened, but the way that Damian reacted was his fault and his alone. "But it just happened so fast that I didn't really stop to think about how Michael would take the change in plans."

"Michael needs to understand that the world doesn't revolve around him…"

"Michael also at least deserves an explanation as to when things happen that he didn't intend. We didn't even talk about it. I didn't ask if it was okay. I can see how that would rub against him the wrong way."

"He's a little boy… he gets hurt easily."

"Which is why we should have to work extra hard making sure that he doesn't get hurt," sometimes, although he would never admit it, Damian felt that he was doing a hefty amount of parenting in the stead of his father. It was certainly true with their own relationship, where Damian had to guide Sonny into the role of being a father to a twenty one year old young man, but there were a few times when he was able to help Sonny understand Michael a little better.

"I see your point," Sonny regretted the mistakes that they had both made with Michael. It was Christmas, too. "We should go apologize to him."

"Let me do it," Damian offered his services. "You can talk to Carly… try and calm her down."

"I'd rather talk to Michael…"

"Yeah, well, I'm not married to Carly," Damian started to walk away. "She wears your ring, dad, that's your jurisdiction."

Sonny waited a moment, then it dawned on him. "I just got played, didn't I?"

Upstairs, Michael was playing with his new toys, but he wasn't happy. He was just looking for a distraction. He hated being treated like he was a little kid, it was easily his least favorite thing. He could tolerate the kissing much more than he could tolerate being treated like he didn't matter to his family. He had at least stopped crying, which was the first thing that he had done when his mother left him. At least she still cared.

"Michael…"

"Go away," Michael muttered, not even bothering to look at his brother.

"Hey, you know better than to say something like that to anyone…" Damian wasn't going to let his little brother boss him around. Michael had been mistreated, yes, but that didn't give him the right to mistreat someone else back. "Come on… how am I going to make everything better unless you talk to me?"

"Maybe I don't want to talk with you."

"You don't really mean that, do you? Who else are you going to talk with?"

"I can talk to other people…"

"But I thought you liked talking to me."

"I did. But I'm mad at you."

"I'm mad at myself, too," Damian sat on the carpet, his back braced on the bed where Michael's feet dangled off the side. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier when Lois was here. I didn't mean to just blow you off like that."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because sometimes even I can make mistakes, Michael," Damian hoped he was getting somewhere with the kid, because he knew how stubborn Michael could be and Damian wasn't sure how far he could go before he lost the argument completely. "If you don't want to accept my apology, then that's your choice. You have the right to your opinion, and all I can do is say that I didn't mean to do it and if I could have I would have done everything differently. I care about you too much to see you angry or hurt, kid, and I won't let you keep on doing that to yourself, but I can't stop you."

"You always do this to me…"

"Do what?"

"Try and treat me like I'm not a little kid…"

"Because you're not, you're growing up…"

"Yeah, but then you go and do something that makes me feel like I am a little kid," Michael finally did look at his brother, but he wasn't crying, he was just hurt. "I hate it when you do that. You try and tell me something, and then you do something else that makes me wonder how much you really believe in me."

"I believe in you completely. There's nobody else that I would want for a little brother, Michael, nobody. Sometimes I forget how mature you are, how you can see things that I would have never been able to see when I was your age. You're a smart kid, and I need to remember that."

Michael could see that Damian was getting up to leave. "Where are you going?"

"To give you some time alone so you can make up your mind. Dad and I both feel really bad about what we did, but it's like I've told you many times in the past, you're free to make your own choices." He walked out of the room, pressing his head against the door when he closed it. Who knew being a big brother could be so complicated?


	46. Don't Zoom In

Ana- Yes, poor Michael, but you can be assured that the worry over the Corinthos children will switch soon enough. What's that mean? You'll just have to wait and see.

Story-

Morgan Household-

Dillon didn't go back to sleep after getting his present. How could he? He was thoroughly immersed in understanding everything that there was about his new toy. From the zooming to the battery life, Dillon would treat his digital camcorder like it was his firstborn child. Hopefully Georgie wouldn't mind.

He was in the living room when Jason came down the stairs. The device was on, and who better to start with than his caretaker, and the man who gave him the gift. Besides, Jason loved the camera, right? "Smile, Jason!"

"Get that thing out of my face," Jason ordered. It wasn't a request, it was a simple order. "Dillon, we need to establish a rule if you're going to keep that thing here…"

"Yeah… sure…"

"You can film whatever you want… as long as it doesn't look suspicious," Jason knew that there was so much that went around in his life that anything could be used against him to put him away, to take him away from his family. "So, that pretty much limits any and all filming in the penthouses, mine or Sonny's. I'd hate to feel the urge to break your camcorder less than a day after I gave it to you."

"I always did want one of these," Dillon admitted. "I'd ask for one every year… since I was like twelve or something, it was the only thing I ever really wanted, something that would help make my visions more concrete, but my mother would never cave in and give it to me. She would always say that I needed to spend more time on making sure that I would have a future, not spending time nursing childish fantasies."

"Tracy wanted to control you," Jason put on his jacket. "She's a Quatermaine, Dillon, that's what they do for the most part. She didn't think that you having a hobby like you do, something that you can turn into a very promising career that you can be proud of, was part of the acceptable Quatermaine activity."

"But you, you're different…"

Jason nodded. He didn't like being compared to the Quatermaine's, but he couldn't deny his blood ties to them. "You're different from them, too. I wouldn't let many people live with me, Dillon, and that list is even shorter when you consider the people who we're related to. You're up there with Emily and Justus as the only members of my family that I can feel some degree of freedom around."

"Monica and Alan care about you," Dillon wasn't sure he should have been saying anything.

"I know. And I don't hate them. I know that if I needed their help they would help me in an instant, and I appreciate that they still care about me even after everything that's happened, but I can't bring myself to be their son again, at least not in the way that they want."

"Would you help them if they needed it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I'm just speaking hypothetically here," Dillon put the camera down, probably for the first time since he got it. "But, say that Alan needed a liver or something that only one of his blood relatives could give him. I know Monica adopted you like Sonny adopted Michael so it wouldn't work the same in that scenario, but what if she just needed you to be there for her? Would you?"

"Why are you asking me these questions?"

Dillon shrugged. "Just curious I guess. If you don't want to answer them, Jason, you don't need to. I know all about your code of silence, the way that you put up barriers so you don't have to open up around damn near anyone who wants to get close. I live with you, you're my cousin, but if you want to get technical about it I know more of you than just plain you."

Jason turned around and headed for the door, "I'm a private person now, Dillon. Given the things that I do it's easier on me and on everyone else if they don't get close. If I'm just some distant person that they barely know how are they going to feel when I finally end up getting killed because of something that happened while I was working? I don't want to go back to the old ways where I tried to do everything for everyone…"

"But you're already doing that," Dillon cut in. "Look at the way that we depend on you, Jason. Even after the accident you became Carly's best friend, the one person that she could always count on when she needed you. You've done the same with Courtney, Michael, Sonny… even Damian and I know that we can come to you when we need it. And even though you might not be as close to the rest of the Quatermaine's as you think you are, you're still a very important person in their lives. If something happens to you, Jason… it'll destroy a part of all of us."

"Sometimes you're too smart for your own good," Jason could see the points that Dillon was making. He cared about a lot of people and he knew that they cared about him, but he needed to feel that way. He needed to have people know that they could depend on him. It made him feel like he was doing something right, something good, when everything else about him seemed to be so dark and corrupting.

Jason opened his door, but the doorway was barred by Damian. Although Jason was silently wondering how much the boy had heard, he didn't let on with it. Instead, he just went on with life like he normally would. "Hey…"

"I just came to talk with Dillon…"

"Go ahead," Jason moved out of the way so that Damian could walk in before he took his leave.

"Feeling any better?" Dillon could see that there was the slightest amount of tension that was going on between Jason and Damian. It wasn't his place, so he wouldn't try and fix it, but he couldn't help but notice.

"About what happened last night? Maybe a little. Now I'm dealing with being a horrible big brother, but I'll find some way to cope."

"What makes you think you're a bad big brother?"

"Long story," one that he didn't want to talk about. "I think Michael's going to be fine, but I don't really know for sure. I keep letting the people I care about down. So much for the Christmas spirit."

"Talk to the camera," Dillon grabbed the camera, "it'll let you confess to everything that you think is wrong."

"Where'd you get that?"

"Christmas present from Jason and Courtney," Dillon smirked. "It's cool, isn't it?"

Damian could see his best friend having the best time of his life with that camera. It was good that Dillon got something that would let his creativity flow. They had both been presented with gifts that gave them the chance to express themselves. But that didn't mean that Damian wanted the camera in his face, especially with the zooming lense. It was more than a little alarming. "Dillon, do me a favor… get that out of my face."

"What's with you people and the not wanting me to film you? How can I make movies if I don't have actors?"

"You can make nature documentaries…"

"Right," Dillon said sarcastically, "because we all know how many famous nature documentary directors there are in the world."

"I'm sure you could name half of them."

"Actually…" Dillon's mind was mulling with the possibility of naming more than a handful of people who would fit the bill. He liked some nature movies, not a lot, but he would watch anything once. "So, what'd you come here to talk about?"

"Huh?"

"You told Jason that you wanted to speak to me," Dillon heard the conversation, he was in the same room. "We're both here, talk."

"I didn't want to talk to you about something in particular… I just needed to give Uncle Jason a reason why I was standing in front of his door. He hasn't… said anything about me, has he?"

Dillon thought back to any conversation that they had engaged in pertaining to Damian. "Not to me…"

"He's not mad at you, if that's what you're thinking," Courtney came down the stairs, finally dressed and ready to do whatever she needed to do during the day. "Disappointed, but not mad."

"So you know then?" If there was a person that Damian trusted above all else, Courtney was that person. She was his first confidant, at least within his family.

"I thought he was being a little harsh on you," Courtney finished walking down the stairs, standing next to the desk. "But I understand where he's coming from."

"So do I."

"Excuse me…" Dillon brought his hand up, "But I don't understand where Jason's coming from. Care to fill me in?"

"You were there last night, weren't you?" Courtney wondered. "Didn't you wonder why Jason even showed up at the mansion?"

"I figured Emily had called him…"

"It wasn't Emily," Courtney informed the boy. "Damian wanted to give you both a Christmas with your family."

"I was a little more direct with the approach when it came to you," Damian added. "I don't think Uncle Jason would have appreciated the blindfold very much."

Slowly the pieces were coming together for Dillon. The conversation that he had with Damian when they were together after the party. "That's why you were apologizing to me last night… because Jason wanted you to."

"No, he didn't want me to," Damian wouldn't have done it simply because Jason wanted him to, he would have done it because it was the one thing that he needed to do. "I did it because it was the right thing to do. He showed me how I was acting, and that even though it was with good intentions it wasn't the best way to act."

"You don't need to feel like you owe him anything, Damian," Courtney gave her nephew a gentle pat on the shoulder, "I spoke to him, it's already a done deal. He's still thankful that you did what you did, just not how you did it."

"Hey," Dillon began, "why don't we go do something fun? Get our minds off of everything… its Christmas, we shouldn't be moping around. You shouldn't be moping around."

Damian knew that Dillon had no idea about his past. Moping around at Christmas was essentially all the holiday meant to him. "Actually, there's something that I need to do… but I don't see why we can't do something a little later?"

"Sure," Dillon wished that they could have spent time together right away, since he was worried about Damian and that worry translated into a desire to at least make sure that Damian didn't slip further into a depression, but there was nothing that he could do. "I'll call you in a few hours?"

"Yeah, that'll be good," Damian headed for the door once more. "Don't worry about me, you two. I'll be fine, promise. See you later."

Dillon didn't buy the statement. "Doesn't he realize that whenever he tells us that he'll be fine it only makes us worry about him even more?"

"He and Jason are alike in that way," Courtney surmised. "Sometimes you'd think they were more than just related by marriage."

"Where do you think he's going?"

"I wish I knew," Courtney thought about following him, knowing that Dillon was thinking the same thing but also knowing that he had requested some space even though he didn't say it flat out. "Sometimes Jason doesn't realize how much his words hurt people. He's so flat out honest that it cuts us to the bone. I think that's what happened with Damian." Whatever he was going through was something that he needed to deal with himself.


	47. Announcements

Ric Lansing's Apartment-

There was the slightest ray of light that pierced through the drapes into his bedroom. Ric knew where to sleep so that he could manage to avoid being awoken by the sunshine, but that knowledge was based entirely on being alone in his bed. Ric wasn't alone, and he hoped he didn't have to be alone ever again.

He hadn't thought about the sun factor while he and Elizabeth were snuggling together in his bed for the first time in what seemed to be ages. For him, every night without her was like an eternity and it was easily one of the most painful things that he had ever endured in his life. People thought that his hurt and his anger came from the rejection that he had received by Sonny and in the beginning that was true, but when he lost Elizabeth that first time he knew that it wasn't Sonny who he needed to focus his life on, it was her.

Ric put his hand in front of his eyes, hoping to shield them from the sun as he turned around, no longer bothered by the radiance and instead enthralled by the sheer beauty of the woman who he truly loved. Her back was turned to him, her hair sweeping down her shoulders. Being with her, just in bed with her, felt complete. Ric slowly and gently ran his hand through her hair, remembering how much time he would spend doing the same activity when they were married. It seemed like it was so tedious and trite, but nothing could be further from the truth for Ric.

Elizabeth had also yearned for the togetherness that she was now getting from her fiancé, and it was when that yearning was fulfilled that she woke from her slumber. Her beautiful blue eyes opened up, showing the drab surroundings. Ric's room was completely devoid of color, with ash hues all around. If they were going to live in the apartment after they got remarried then she would have to do something about that. In that moment the décor didn't matter, all that mattered was Ric. She turned to lay on her other side, facing him. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lansing."

Ric wasn't sure what to call her in those terms. Was she still Mrs. Lansing? Instead, he focused on the future rather than a very marred past. "Merry Christmas, the soon to be once again Mrs. Lansing."

Elizabeth brought the sheet up to her chest. Although they had been together, they did not share any intimacy beyond simple touches and kisses. It was Elizabeth's choice and Ric respected it. She wanted them to bond in that way again when they were truly remarried, doing it before would seem like cheating.

"You look so beautiful," Ric was awestruck, as if Elizabeth had been hiding some of her beauty from him and he was only now just seeing it. Perhaps it was because of the Christmas holiday and her love for it. Maybe that was Ric's little bit of Christmas magic.

"I bet you say that to all the girls who end up in your bed in the morning."

"You're the only girl, no, woman, that I would ever allow to be in my bed with me. You know that."

Elizabeth believed him. She could tell better than anyone else when Ric was lying and when he was telling the truth. Most of the times that she knew he was lying she had tried to fool herself into thinking that he wasn't. It was just as much her fault as it was his that their first attempt at marriage had gone the way it had. Ric wouldn't let her take any of the blame since he didn't want her to feel that way but it didn't stop Elizabeth from seeing the truth in the matter.

She moved her head forward, resting on his shoulder, "I just needed to be reassured of my place in your life."

Ric leaned his own head down atop of hers, "Did you ever truly doubt that place?"

"Can't blame a girl for wanting to feel important in a man's life, can you?"

Ric chuckled, "No, I guess I can't."

A sound of complete comfort escaped from Elizabeth's lips. She loved being in that bed with him. "We could spend the rest of our lives here, Ric, I wouldn't mind."

"Now that's not very logical, is it?" Ric asked. "I'd love to do the same, Elizabeth, but I'm still the district attorney of Port Charles and you… you can't stay cooped up in a house all the time. That's what housewives do, and you're anything but a housewife."

"Damn you and your logic," Elizabeth protested, complete with a mocking pout. "Ruining my fun."

"You know, after we're married again, you don't have to work at Kelly's anymore. I might not be making as much money as I was when I was just a lawyer, but…"

"Ric," Elizabeth interrupted him, "I don't want to stop working at Kelly's, I like it."

"But what about your painting?" Ric asked. "Elizabeth, I know what your dreams are, and they don't involve wearing an apron and asking people how they want their hamburger to be cooked."

"You like yours done medium-rare."

"That's beside the point. I just want you to be happy. I'm going to be your husband again. My first priority is to make you happy. This time I won't forget just how important that vow really is." His second chance at marriage, he was going to be damned if it ended up like the first.

Elizabeth brought herself away from the warmth of his shoulder. She appreciated the offer, she truly did, but she wasn't going to allow herself to turn into one of those people who worked their lives around their husbands. "Ric, you know how much I love to paint and how important it is to me… but, I don't know, there's something about Kelly's that makes it special to me. The way that I can help people with their problems, even the people that I don't know. I can't do that if I'm in a room painting by myself. You said you knew what my dream was, but dreams can change, and they do."

Ric listened to her mini-speech. She had such untouchable virtues. If they had a child, if they had many children, Ric would be sure to make it so that his children, sons, daughters, whatever they may have been, ended up with their mothers sense of right and wrong. It would have been horrible for them to get his value system, especially since it was dubious as to the fact of him having one to begin with.

"All right," Ric conceded victory to Elizabeth. "I just threw the suggestion out in the open. If you don't want to take it then that is your right. But if you ever feel like you want to stop working don't hesitate, I can support us both."

"I'll keep that in mind," Elizabeth knew that she could depend on Ric for monetary support, and that was a good thing. He was also leaps and bounds safer than Jason. Would she even tell Jason that she was getting married to Ric again?

"Well," Ric changed the subject, "you're going to have to help me out on this one, Elizabeth… because I was never very good at the whole Christmas thing. This is our first Christmas together, maybe not married, yet, but still together. What do we do?"

"Normally we would be opening presents right now," Elizabeth loved the holiday ever so much. "But… I don't have your present here."

"Yes, you do…"

"No, Ric, I don't, I swear."

Ric wrapped an arm around Elizabeth and gave her a tender kiss on the lips before pulling away. "You're the only present that I need, Elizabeth. Regardless of the holiday, you are the only present that I will ever need."

"Gift wrapping will be a pain…"

"But think of the fun that would be had while I was unwrapping… especially if the wrapping was all that you had on…"

Elizabeth giggled mischievously. "Ric… we promised each other…"

"I know what we promised each other," Ric wouldn't break a vow so quickly. "Let's just call this highly extended foreplay. Besides, I don't think we said that kissing one another was off limits, did we?"

"No, we didn't…"

"Good, because I'd hate to be a cheater."

As Ric lowered his head for another kiss the motion was cut off by the sound of knocking at his door. He stopped and looked out his bedroom door, the house door not being in clear site. "Maybe they'll go away…" the knocking continued, "or not…"

Elizabeth didn't mind the interruption. They could continue their fun later. "Why don't you go and answer it?"

"Hold that pose."

Ric got out of bed and walked out of the room, the knocking was continuous. Whoever was trying to break up his moment with Elizabeth was anything if not persistent. Ric went for the knob, twisting it and pulling, "This had better be good."

"I… just wanted to see how things went last night," Damian saw that Ric was in pajamas again, not surprising, since it was still morning, but his mind recollected how Ric looked the day before.

"And you couldn't have called?"

Damian didn't take the comment very well. "I can just come back later…"

"No," Ric shook his head, his tone of voice showing that he had felt sorry for the harshness in his voice. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. Come on in."

Damian walked inside, looking at how the decorations that he set up turned out. They looked decent enough. It wasn't like he was the most talented decorator on the planet, and even if he tried to call Carly asking for advice he could never say what the reason was. She wouldn't help him help Ric Lansing if she was aware of it.

"So," the boy started, "the party… did it go well? I saw you and Elizabeth talking, but…"

"No, everything worked out just perfectly."

Damian smiled, "I'm glad." The smile was quick to fade.

Ric noticed the quick and drastic change in temperament. Damian tried to be as upbeat as possible, which was hard given the fact that he was a Corinthos living in Port Charles, but when something was wrong it usually meant that something was very wrong. "Are you okay?"

"Yes and no. I'll be fine… just questioning my motives right now."

"What do you mean? What motives?"

"In general. The way that when I do something I tend to do it my way and that's the only way that I will do it. Like with you last night… I probably wouldn't have let you not go to that party."

"And I'm thankful that you wouldn't have…"

"But that's not my right. It isn't my place to tell you or anyone else how to live their life."

"I had promised Elizabeth that I would go, I told you that. It was a promise that I made, I was bound to keep it. You being there would have just been like insurance to make sure that I didn't fall back on my plan." He saw Elizabeth standing in the doorway. She had come out when she realized it was Damian. He motioned for her to come closer. "Besides, I'm really glad that you were there, that you came here when I called. You helped a lot."

"I did? How?"

"I don't think I should be the one to tell you that," Ric grinned. "Why don't you ask her?" He pointed over to Elizabeth.

Damian followed his uncle's finger. He didn't expect Elizabeth to be at the house. But he also knew that because she was things were working out between the two of them, and for that he was very thankful. "Elizabeth…"

Elizabeth hugged Damian, "Thank you for putting the decorations up. They mean so much to me, just like you. I don't think I could have done a better job."

"Uncle Ric wanted me to help him…"

Elizabeth looked over Damian's shoulder at Ric, "Maybe you should just tell him."

The boy cocked an eyebrow. "Tell me? Tell me what?"

"I guess it's only right that you're the first person to know," Ric agreed. "I mean, you're a big part of the reason why I even had the courage to do anything last night. I proposed to Elizabeth last night, Damian… and she accepted."

It took a moment for the wheels in his head to process the information, maybe because he was still stunned in seeing Elizabeth there to begin with. But eventually he did realize what it meant. "That's great! I'm so happy for both of you."

"We don't have a date or anything picked out yet," Elizabeth pulled away from Damian, "but we're probably not going to have a big church wedding. We like private ceremonies…"

"If you want me there, just tell me when and where and I will be there. Looks like I'll have to start calling you 'Aunt Elizabeth,' won't I?" Even though saying it then and there felt foreign, he knew he could get used to it. Elizabeth was already like a member of his family, marrying Ric only made it official.


	48. Meeting The Group

Port Charles Docks-

The Jones' sisters waited there on the docks together. Their meal with their father had been the first meal in a long time where they actually had some fun. There was always something going on in one of their lives, usually Mac's, that would prohibit them from being a family together. For Georgie it was somewhat incomplete without Felicia there, but Maxie liked it that way.

"How long have we been waiting?" Maxie asked, sitting on the bench, holding her jacket closer to her person in an effort to warm herself up. She should have gotten some cocoa, but it was an oversight on her part, one that she was very upset for making.

"Less than ten minutes," Georgie laughed at her sister. Maxie had a lot of quirks, some of them were good, some of them were bad. That was true of every person, though, not just Maxie. Georgie had a vested interest in the quirks of her big sister, maybe that was why she noticed them so much. "You're so impatient."

"I just don't like standing around here waiting for something that we don't even know anything about!"

"Dillon asked us to meet him here, Maxie. You were there with me when I got the phone call."

"He could have been a little more… informative about why we were supposed to meet here, you know?"

"That's Dillon for you," Georgie replied with a shrug. "Maybe he's trying to get us to join a troupe of traveling actors where he's the director."

"I'd hate to break your boyfriends heart, Georgie, but if he wanted us to do that I would have to tell him no."

"So would I," Georgie would do many things for Dillon. Many things indeed, but there were few things that she wouldn't do. Acting in front of a bunch of people, even if it was the love of her life who had orchestrated everything, was one of them. Georgie could put on a show once a year for a few hours if it meant making kids smile, but doing it on a regular basis? No way that was going to happen.

"You think Damian's going to be with him?" Maxie hadn't heard from her own boyfriend the entire day. They didn't have to talk every single day, but it was Christmas, she figured that would have at least complied him to call her up.

"They're next door neighbors," Georgie took a seat next to Maxie. She had been pacing. Although she had called Maxie on her impatience the truth was that Georgie was also impatient as well. She just knew how to hide it much better.

"Did you ever think that it would end up like this?"

Georgie moved an errant strand of hair away from her eyes, "What do you mean?"

"That we would end up dating guys who became each others best friends," Maxie thought about their boyfriends. "I mean, it's so surreal how well they get along." She didn't want to say anything, but she knew they were both thinking about it. It was so much different from the way that Kyle was with Dillon and vice versa. Those two hated each other deeply, although only Dillon truly had reason to detest Kyle. Kyle's only reasons for disliking Dillon were based entirely on the fact that Dillon's family had more money. Dillon had been abused by Kyle and had seen him abuse Maxie. There was a sizable gap in justification behind their respective motives.

"I know," Georgie agreed. "And then Dillon goes to live with Jason and Courtney. They might see each other more than we see them."

"Should we be jealous?"

Georgie thought about it for a second, but it wasn't actual thinking, she was just being funny. "Maybe a little. If they come up to us at any point in time holding hands, we reserve the right to beat the hell out of both of them."

"Deal."

"But I don't think that would ever happen," Georgie continued. "I mean, I don't think they would ever want to hurt either of us. Both of them. Like, Damian wouldn't want to hurt me and I'm sure Dillon wouldn't want to hurt you."

"We're sisters," Maxie commented. "Dating one of us is almost like dating the other. We come in a package deal."

"I'm so happy that you didn't go away to college…"

Maxie turned away slight, "I didn't really have many other options, did I?"

Georgie knew that she had hit a nerve. Not a very big one, but Maxie did resent the way that she had blown off doing anything that would get her ahead academically until it was almost too late. The City College in Port Charles would accept just about anyone so long as they had the money to pay for tuition. But it was still a college level education, even if it was filled with most of the people who were working at a McDonalds the next town over, still living with their parents and trying to hold onto that final strand of what it was like when they were in high school. Luckily, Maxie wasn't like that.

"You don't have to keep on going there, Maxie," Georgie tried to lift Maxie's spirits up. If anyone could, given the context, it was Georgie. She knew a lot about… well, everything, really, but colleges were her specialty. She got started early, as soon as she was in high school she was already priming herself for an ivy league education. "You don't even have to go there the whole two years that it would likely take to finish your general education. You can probably try to apply for late admission to PCU…"

"That's still Port Charles."

"This is your home, Maxie," Georgie didn't want her sister to leave her. She realized she was being hypocritical. She wasn't likely to end up going to PCU herself, it wasn't what she had in mind, but she wouldn't let anyone stop her from doing what she wanted. She would try and stop Maxie from leaving her, but if Maxie tried to get her to stop from leaving, Georgie knew she would go.

"I know that…"

"And you have a lot of people who care about you, not just me and dad. Maxie, your boyfriend is here. He's not going anywhere. He's going to be here for at least a few years while he finishes up his medical degree, plus he'll probably end up staying because of his family."

"What if I want to go somewhere?" Maxie asked. "What if, once I can finally get into a good college somewhere else, I want to go away? What should I do then? Should I just stay here because he's here, because he won't leave? Should I give up what I want to do for someone else?"

"Do you think I would really ask you to do that?"

Maxie looked over the railing to see Damian, who she hadn't anticipated coming. She didn't want him to hear that. She also knew the answer to his question. "No," she said softly, "of course you wouldn't ask me to give up a part of me just for you."

"Maxie," Damian continued to walk down the steps, "if you want to go away to another college when you get the chance you should go. I wouldn't stop you. It would kill me to know that you were away from me, I won't lie, but it would be selfish of me to even think that I should try and keep you here."

"I didn't mean for it to sound like it did," Maxie was instantly switched over to the apologetic mode. "I was just thinking about it… I don't want to leave you."

"But if you ever did, I wouldn't stop you."

"You wouldn't even try?" Maxie wasn't sure how she should have taken the declaration. She thought their love was strong, but if he wasn't even going to try and keep them together, even a little, then maybe she was wrong.

"I would promise to always love you," Damian passed Georgie, sitting on the side opposite to Maxie. "Just like when we thought that there was a chance that I could go away to prison for that frame-up job…"

"I don't want to think about that…"

"But do you remember how I felt then?" He asked. "I told you then the same thing I'm telling you now. Maxie, you're always going to be in my mind, I'm always going to love you. Distance can't change that. You could go to school in Switzerland, and I'd still love you just as much as if you went to school at PCU with me."

Maxie knew that he was being sincere. Nobody could ever be as honest as Damian, nobody could ever say something that sounded so completely simple yet deep that it would make Maxie's heart melt. Holding back tears from the thoughtful words that had come out of his mouth, she could only hug him tightly, her bracelet shining in the light. She also had the answer that she needed about her questions of the letter. She knew it was legit because he wouldn't do something like that to her. Ever.

Georgie watched the two of them. They were something else. Maybe it was because they were older, or maybe it was because Damian grew up in a completely different household in the cultural sense, but there was something that they had that she could never have with Dillon. She wasn't even sure she wanted it. It was just for the two of them and if she tried to emulate it that would just feel wrong to her.

Pulling away from the hug, Damian held onto Maxie's hand. "I'm going to assume that we all got a telephone call from Dillon telling us to meet him here?"

"That's why we're here," Georgie nodded. "But he didn't tell us anything about why he wanted us to meet here. Do you know why?"

"He just said to meet him at the docks… and he's not here yet. If he was coming from the towers it shouldn't take this long to walk over."

"But I didn't come from the penthouses," Dillon appeared from the side. "At least not after I went to the Quatermaine Mansion…"

"You went to your families?" Georgie was stunned. She hadn't even thought to ask how the heist that Damian was planning went, but since they weren't at each others throats she could assume that it didn't go too badly.

"I had to rescue someone…"

The three people on the bench were all dumbfounded as to what meaning could possibly have been behind Dillon's statement. They all looked to him for more answers, but he gave them only the biggest Cheshire grin that he could manage.

"You can come out now," Dillon called behind his shoulder, only further adding to the mystery.

"Dillon…" Georgie was suspicious. She didn't like it when Dillon kept secrets from her.

"Everybody… I'd like to introduce you all to… well, technically she's my niece, but we won't get into all of that right away…"

Brook walked out from behind Dillon, expecting to see nobody that she knew. She barely even knew Dillon, but he had been rather insistent on dragging her out of the mansion and she was getting tired of hanging around with people who were all over twice her age. She jumped at the chance to meet up with some kids her own age. It was only icing on the cake that she had already known one of them, "Hey!"

Damian was just as stunned as she was. The girl that Sonny's friend had brought over to visit earlier that morning was Dillon's niece? "Hi, Brook."

Dillon switched glances between the two of them. "You two… already know each other?"

"She was at the house earlier," Damian was unaware of the way that Maxie was looking at him and Brook. "If I had known that she was the niece you were telling me about last night I would have said something."

"Yeah, Sonny and my ma go way back," Brook didn't want to divulge into their little history, but she probably could. Her whole life since she could remember had been filled with stories where Lois told her about how much fun Sonny was. "So since we're here in Port Charles for a little while she thought it would be cool to go see her old friend and she dragged me along, right? But while I was there thinking that I wouldn't do anything but wish to get the hell out I heard someone playing the piano and then I saw that it was Damian…"

"You got a piano?" Maxie asked, somewhat jealous that Damian had dared to play the piano for someone other than her.

"Dad gave it to me for Christmas. Now I can use the book that you gave me. Isn't that great?"

Maxie smiled widely as she kissed him on the cheek, showing that he was hers. "That's wonderful. Now you can practice more and then you can play a song that's just for me."

"Well, that gives me one less introduction," Dillon continued with his mission. "Brook, the one next to Damian is Maxie Jones and this vision of pure beauty," Dillon walked over to Georgie and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder, "is the woman that I love, Georgie Jones."

"Nice to meet both of you," Brook watched as the two couples fawned over each other. It made her feel very uncomfortable, which she was almost sure wasn't Dillon's intention. He didn't seem like he was that malicious. But then she did just meet him. Regardless, she wasn't sure how she would get along when she was the obvious odd girl out.


	49. The Art Of War

Authors Notes: While you've all read up to page 245 (counting this chapter), the story itself just hit page 300 last night, and tomorrow brings the 50th chapter. Celebration is in order!

Journeylove- Thank you for reviewing. I am glad to see that you take time and effort in your schoolwork, something I should probably do as well, but I spend more time writing this than hitting the books. Its okay, I still get passable grades in my classes. Brook will cause trouble very much in the way that any beautiful and talented young woman would. That enough of a cryptic hint for you? Can't lay all my cards on the table right away, now can I?

Story-

Corinthos Household-

The Christmas Season was officially over, and all that remained were the late presents that arrived at various houses around the world. Three days loomed past the festive holiday, with the next big celebration also three days away. They went about their business as usual, talking, conducting business, everything that would have happened after Christmas, nothing was different. Nothing except the distance that Michael was giving his father and his brother. He'd talk to them, but there was something that was missing. The smile, the laugh, everything that made Michael who he was seemed to be gone. It hurt all the parties involved, and even those that weren't. Courtney and Jason had attempted to break the boy's resistance down, but it was to no avail. Michael wasn't happy, but he knew that he still loved both of them.

Sonny was quick to react to the thought of having the distance kept in the long run. For Sonny, who had many fears that ranged from claustrophobia to the fear of snow, the worst fear, the one that he knew he would have the hardest time coping with, was that of not being held in the highest of regard by his children. When it came to Damian Sonny had found a way to cope with their differences, but he was now getting a taste of what it could have been like when Michael truly started to develop into his own unique individual. Sonny didn't much care for that early glimpse into his future, he much preferred the little boy who he had welcomed into his family with open arms.

It wasn't a problem that Sonny could deal with in the regular ways. He couldn't just find a way to 'get rid' of Michael. He wouldn't allow himself to dip that low into his pit of self-pity. He'd never harm a child, ever. The kid didn't even have to be his. There were things that Sonny often said he would never do but ended up having to do it out of necessity. Getting back into the business was such a thing, but he would sooner die than lay a hand on any child. They were innocent and pure. He was an adult, it was his responsibility to keep those qualities intact.

But there was another way that he could fix the problem, and he was quick to decide that it would have to happen in order for him and his family to be happy. Michael was a child, his love came unconditionally regardless, but there were times when a child decided that it needed to be bought. Maybe he was going through one of those times. Sonny was ready to ask Michael what he wanted to make everything right, but he was stopped and it wasn't by Carly, or even Courtney and Jason.

As Sonny sat there on the couch, his brow furrowed, chin perched on his hand, he remembered the conversation that he had with Damian the day after Christmas. The boy knew his father too well, even though they were still quite new in each others lives. Sonny was predictable, or so he had begun to think. Damian was well aware of Sonny's intentions, and he had intentions of his own, ones that would stop his father from doing something that was so… wrong.

"Why shouldn't I do this?" Sonny asked, his eyes intense with both anger and frustration. Normally they would be able to hide the anguish and the sorrow, but they couldn't, not in that moment. "We messed up, we both admit that. Michael's angry at both of us… and this isn't one of those normal little kid reasons like one of us accidentally broke his favorite toy…"

"Which is exactly why we have to let him come to his own conclusions…"

"What?"

"Dad," Damian was barring his father's path in the stairway. Most people Sonny would find a way to make move. It worked to Damian's advantage that he wasn't most people. "I spoke to him already. I told him that we were both extremely sorry for what we did but that was how we felt. He's growing up…"

"He's not even old enough to shave yet!"

"That doesn't matter." Their eyes met. They were both acting in the best interest of someone that they cared deeply about, but their tactics were completely different from one another. They had often found themselves pitted on the opposite side of certain aspects of life, but this was something that was completely different than what they were used to. They weren't talking about Sonny's business or Damian's dream to be a doctor and do things as legally as possible. This was a boy.

"He's nine years old, dad," Damian continued. "Some of us grow up quicker than others. Look at me… do you think I went through life thinking that everything was going to be perfect and that in the end I'd always be happy?"

"I want to make sure that Michael doesn't have to deal with that like you did!" Sonny retracted his bitterness. "I… I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I think that you became a better person because of what happened… even before your mom died, but I still wish to God that you never had to live without me. Michael doesn't have to worry about that…"

"We can't make up his mind for him…"

"You're right… we can't, because you're not his parent, I am. I can make up his mind for him, and if I can't, I can find some way to make everything okay!"

"You won't make it okay, though," Damian argued. "You'll just avoid the problem entirely."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"Yes, it is," Damian finally moved out of the way, but he wasn't through with his part of the debate. "If you do this for Michael, dad, if you try and buy back his affection it'll only teach him that his own opinion really doesn't matter, that the only things that truly matter are those which can be bought. Do you want to teach him something like that?"

Sonny was silent for a long moment as he thought about the words that were being spoken to him. He hated it when Damian ended up trying to defend someone… because the boy usually had the most level head of anyone involved. Once more, the doctor to be had proven that he was right on some levels.

Turning around and descending down the stairs, Sonny's head was low and his voice was a near-whisper, "I just want my little boy to love me again…"

Carly returned from town. The tension in the house was so thick that she needed to get out and do something that let her forget about her problems for just a little while. The movie didn't appear to be all that interesting, proving that she couldn't really trust Dillon's opinion. Why did she even agree to watch a film that wasn't even in her native language?

Her own worries were pushed aside when she saw her husband. Even though she was still upset at both of them for what they had done to Michael she could see that they both just wanted everything to be okay again. Lois had even agreed that she shouldn't have been so cold, although that conclusion was wrought only after many minutes of yelling and snide remarks from both females. It hadn't come to blows, so that was at least a show of some restraint.

"Hey…" she said blankly. Before she would have rushed into his arms for some cuddle time, but until things were smoothed over that really didn't seem to be something that she could handle.

Sonny lowered his hand as his eyes traveled over to her. She was still beautiful, the most beautiful woman that he had ever laid eyes on. He'd been in love before, with many people, and even some who he just told himself that he loved because he was lonely, but with Carly it was so obvious that they cared about one another.

"I didn't hear you come in," he admitted. "I've got a lot on my mind right now."

"Probably not something that you can talk about, so I won't even ask…"

"It's about Michael."

"Oh," she knew that it was common ground. She'd been there before with Michael, too. She knew how he could be. The way that he would hold back from his natural attitude, it hurt her, too. The pain was still fresh. He had acted cold and distant to her while she was still coping with the idea of another child in Sonny's life. If anything, Carly should have been Sonny's number one supporter, but she couldn't find it in herself to do that.

Sonny coughed a few times, each cough in succession becoming louder and harder. His eyes watered, but it wasn't something that he couldn't recover from. Even Sonny Corinthos got sick every now and again. He just hoped that he didn't pass it on to one of the other people around him.

"Did you drink that lemon, honey and mint tea?" Carly asked. She walked over to feel Sonny's forehead. It didn't seem to be that hot, maybe a little more than normal.

"Yeah, it helped a little." Sonny's eyes were clearly showing a slight glazing as the fatigue was beginning to wear him down. "Took me awhile to actually get the nerve up to drink it, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… it came from Damian's grandmother," Sonny was touched the way that his son got to work on trying to help him get better the moment he saw that his father wasn't up to par. Even more, Sonny was amazed at how the would be doctor relied on cultural remedies as opposed to pure medicine. It showed deep roots to his culture. "She's not an enemy… but I don't see why she would have reason to want to help me."

"Because you're Damian's father," Carly knew that it was obvious. "She knows how much you mean to him now. Why would she want to take that away from her grandson?"

"To get back at me for what I took from them?"

"They're not petty like that…"

"Maybe not Victoria," Sonny had personal experience with both the elder Zuniga's, Carly had only gotten secondhand information. "But Elias… he'll never forget and I don't think he'll ever forgive, not that I can say that I blame him for that."

"He'll see that he was wrong about you," Carly said sympathetically. "I know he will. People are just like that sometimes. Stubborn. Both of us should know that better than anyone else around here."

"It's a trait we've passed to our children…"

"Yeah, well, that's ending right now," Carly looked towards the stairs. She was tired of the way that they were treating each other. She wanted Michael to tell his father that he was fine with everything and let them all live in peace. "M…"

Sonny put his hand over her mouth, effectively silencing her. "Carly, don't, please."

She nodded her head, speaking when Sonny removed his hand from her mouth. "I can fix this, Sonny. Why don't you let me?"

"Because I agreed to let Michael make up his own mind… he deserves that right, don't you think?"

"Michael can make up his mind about a lot of things, like what color shirt he wants to wear to school… he doesn't get to decide that he wants to stop being your son and stop loving you!"

"Michael still loves me…" Sonny didn't need to keep on telling himself that it was the truth, but he did it silently in his own mind. "Carly, please. I don't know how long this will take, and don't you think this is hurting me more than anyone else? You know how I feel about my children… I've been through this once before and I thought that I would do everything in my power to make sure that I never had to do it again."

"You don't…"

"Yes, I do," Sonny corrected her. "Because if I try and bully my way back into Michael's good graces, or if I try and buy him off then that doesn't prove anything to any one of us. It just proves that I can't let my children make decisions about me and how they feel about me… at least my own father didn't try and dissuade me from hating him."

"This isn't like what happened with Mike, Sonny! And I'll be damned if I let Michael ever say that he hates you!"

Sonny closed his eyes, coughing a little bit more. "Look, all I'm saying is that I want to give him the time that he deserves."

"This isn't like Damian, Sonny. Michael is our son, both yours and mine, you don't get to make decisions about him without talking to me about it."

"If you want to go and patch things up, go ahead, I can't stop you. But I am asking you again not to do it so quickly. Michael will come around, Carly. He still knows that he can depend on me for anything that he needs. That's more than I ever got growing up."

"I'm giving him a few days…" Carly finally gave in to the plot. "But, Sonny, it hurts me to see you tearing yourself up like this. Even though I know that you were the person who hurt our son I can't help but feel sorry for you. Does that make me such a horrible person?"

"Of course not, it makes you a very loving and generous woman, someone who I probably don't deserve in my life."

"We'll do this your way… for now," Carly sat on the other end of the couch, putting her feet on the cushion that was between the two of them. She knew that she had a choice. She could have marched up to Michael's room and told him that he needed to stop playing the hurt little boy card, but she didn't. She didn't because she hoped that Sonny was right, and hoped that she wasn't doing something that would only hurt the both of them in the overall scheme of the situation.


	50. Wandering Minds

Kelly's-

For all the time that he spent at the diner he might as well have been living in the room upstairs still. But it was good to be in a familiar place, and there weren't many options available to him. School was on break and he had no way of going through the rigors of class schedules and keeping up with homework assignments. For most that was a time of great celebration, for Damian the opposite was at least partially true. He liked school. He knew how important it was and he liked how it made him look like he had a life of some sort. Without school what was he? A piano player who was barely decent at the craft and very little more. His father and those around him had thought he was really good at the piano, but he knew that he wasn't. They might not have picked up on the small mistakes that he had made, but he did. His ear was still as finely tuned with the music as it had always been. Much like riding a bike, there were some things that were just hard to forget.

He wondered if Lois picked up on them. She was supposed to be some sort of big or at least semi-professional music woman of some kind. She had been touring with her group for awhile, or so that was part of the information that he had gathered during their short conversations. And then there was Brook Lynn. She was a nice girl, he knew that. She was also Dillon's niece, even though they were both somewhat avoidant of that very fact.

Dillon was doing his best to make sure that she wasn't miserable while she was in Port Charles. He was being a good uncle, something that gave the boy with the unusual hairstyle some maturity that was rarely, if ever, shown. That side of Dillon was just as interesting as the one that was always talking about movies.

If there was one thing that was obvious to everyone it was that Maxie and Brook were, at best, uneasy allies. Very much like Carly and Lois, those two were almost constantly at each others throats. Damian didn't see why, none of them did. Georgie and Brook seemed to get along just perfectly, but Maxie and Brook… oil and water. Nobody said anything, of course, they just made sure that there was something, anything, that was said to break up the considerable tension.

"You know its usual procedure to drink the tea that you order." Mike spoke softly as his grandson leaned over the counter, sitting on one of the bar stools. He did that when he wasn't expecting company. If one of his friends was coming he'd usually get them a table, bigger the size depending on how many people were in the party. "Especially when I make sure that we keep this particular flavor and brand of tea in stock because I know how much you like it…"

Mike saw the boy staring into the fast cooling liquid, his hair swooping down the sides of his face. Mike had noticed how so many people, himself included, had praised Damian for being mature, more mature than his short lifespan would often lead people to believe. But in that moment, Mike could see something that he wasn't exactly used to. He could see the boy that was inside the young man that Damian had become.

"Penny," Mike was standing a fair distance away from Damian, but he had a feeling that he could drop an anvil in front or even on top of the boy and he wouldn't budge. "I'm going to take a short break, seems I've got a family matter that needs attending."

With Penny instructed to hold down the fort, Mike was free to do his duty as a grandfather. In truth, Mike Corbin was quite jealous of Elias Zuniga. They had never met, but Mike knew that there had been a forged relationship between Damian and his maternal grandfather that would be so much stronger and deeper than any bond that Mike himself could have hoped to create or strengthen. But there was one glaring fact that couldn't be avoided: Elias was three thousand miles away, and Mike wasn't even three feet away, he had the advantage.

"For a kid who got something that made him seem so happy on Christmas, you sure look down," Mike sat on the stool next to Damian. "You want to talk about it?"

He didn't hear his grandfather. His mind was elsewhere, and he didn't even know where it was. Distracted. Every mistake he'd made since coming to Port Charles and even before that continually flashing in his mind, always going back to that moment where the gun went off from his finger pulling the trigger. And the blood. There was so much blood. Why were his hands wet? Why were they hot?

Mike couldn't stop the cup of tea from being tipped over, but he could keep the spill from getting out of control. His hand reached over the counter in a quick, fluid motion, bringing out a rag and containing the warm tea from doing more than just getting on Damian's hands.

Damian's eyes finally blinked as the haze was lifted from his mind. He could still feel the heat radiating off his fingers. It didn't burn, but it was certainly noticeable. He looked down at his hands, feeling the liquid with his index and middle fingers. It wasn't blood. "What… what happened?"

Mike was glad that he got a response from the young man at last, but his worries didn't find themselves magically going away. If anything they were only intensified. He'd known that something was wrong, but the severity of the mental distraction was something that he hadn't really picked up on.

"Do you need to get some rest?" Mike asked, finishing up with the spill. "I can drive you back to the penthouse, or you can just use the room upstairs, the bed still has bedding and everything."

It was only when he heard Mike's voice that Damian even realized that his grandfather was in fact around. But he wasn't tired. "No, I'm fine…"

"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?"

"I'm a horrible liar…"

"You're certainly not as good as some of the people that I've encountered in this town. Hell, you're not even anywhere near as good as I used to be."

"I was just distracted, Grandpa, honest. I've got a lot on my mind right now and I came here to think in peace, I guess I didn't expect that I would end up going into some sort of mental trance." His body was completely covered down to his hands. Mike had no way of seeing the goose bumps that had formed on his arms, but Damian knew that they were there.

Mike believed the boy. Seemed he was always dealing with some sort of crisis. It probably wasn't that way when he was in Los Angeles. The problem with being a Corinthos was the high amount of drama that came with it, oftentimes drama that didn't even involve every person necessarily, but they all felt the fallout.

Thinking that he had an idea of what was troubling Damian, Mike gave some advice. "I think you should take it."

"Take what?"

"The internship, isn't that what you're thinking about?"

Damian shook his head, "No, I wasn't thinking about the internship." He paused. "How'd you find out about that, anyway? I haven't even told dad yet."

"Why not?" Mike was probably more surprised that Damian hadn't informed Sonny about the chance that he was being given than Damian was that Mike somehow knew about the offer being made in the first place.

"You answer my question, I'll answer yours."

Mike gave a brief chortle. There were times when Damian and Sonny seemed like they were indeed father and son. If it wasn't the look that they both managed to harness it was something else. Withholding information from Mike until some was given to one of them was just one of the many ways that they were alike. "You didn't think that Bobbie would hide something big like this from me, did you?"

"Bobbie told you?"

"When I went to see her on Christmas to give her the present I got for her. She said that she was sure you would have accepted the offer right away, I told her that I agreed with her. Damian, this is an offer that you really can't refuse. Do you know how rare it is that people who just barely started doing specialized medical training, especially in a new city, are given the chance to work with some of the best doctors in the state of New York?"

"She shouldn't have done that…"

"She cares about you," Mike knew that Bobbie thought of Damian as a member of her own family and he also knew that the feeling was reciprocated. She was the first one to give Damian the benefit of the doubt, probably because she knew that what he was going through was something that she could help with. She'd seen the way that Carly acted when their connection was brought to the surface, she didn't want to see it happen again. "She just wants you to make the best choices."

"I didn't say no…"

"But you didn't say yes."

"Because I'm still thinking about it."

"What's there to think about?" Mike had just seen another connection between his son and grandson: stubbornness.

"There's a lot of responsibility that comes with being a doctor."

"You've know that for years. Why are you letting it stop you right now?"

"Because they want me to start doing hands on training. I know that it's going to be a lot of pressure on my shoulders, that I'm going to be putting the lives of people in my own hands… but I don't think I'm ready for that right now, Grandpa. Besides, I don't want people to think that I'm barely an older version of that kid doctor that used to be on television a decade back…"

"If there was one person that I would trust completely with keeping me alive… it would be you."

"Thanks for the sentiment, but it doesn't work that way. You're family, even if I was a doctor there would be nothing that I could do."

"I've seen you work before, remember? I saw you act like you knew exactly what needed to be done when that man was having a seizure right there," Mike pointed at the exact spot. "Everyone else was frozen in fear, not even knowing what could have possibly happened or what they could have done to make it better, but you knew exactly what needed to happen, Damian. You knew how to save that man's life and you did it flawlessly. What more do you need to prove to yourself that you're ready for the responsibilities?"

"I'll think about it," he finally decided that giving Mike a partial victory was better than keeping the fight going for an extended period of time. He loved his grandfather, but this was a situation where nobody but Damian himself could actually do anything about finding an answer one way or the other.

"That's my boy…"

"Just do me a favor?" He looked to Mike with pleading eyes, "Don't tell dad about it, please. Or anyone else for that matter. Everyone who needs to know about it already does… actually, I'd rather it have just been me who knew, but it didn't turn out that way. Regardless… do me this one favor."

"I don't think you have to worry about your father coming to me for advice… I got that before Christmas, now that it's after I'm just waiting for the Christmas miracle to come around again."

"I wish things were better between the two of you."

"Yeah," Mike's bright blue eyes didn't hide the agony. "You're not the only one."

Maxie walked into the diner. She saw him from the window. She wasn't really expecting him to be at Kelly's, but she would often put money on the fact that he was indeed there and this was just one of the many times when she was right.

"Hey there, beautiful."

Maxie blushed. "You shouldn't be hitting on me in front of my boyfriend… especially when that boyfriend is your grandson, Mike."

"I don't think that I'm hitting on you at all, Maxie. I was only speaking the truth. Besides, I couldn't be competition for this young man right here even when I was in my prime. He's something else…"

"Yeah, he is."

Damian could only grin at the two of them, wondering if his other grandfather would have hit it off as well with Maxie as Mike had. Elias had only met the girl once before, but those were hardly under normal circumstances. "You know if the two of you want to keep on paying me compliments while not actually speaking to me… I can just go to some other diner."

"What other diner?" Maxie took a seat, effectively sandwiching Damian between his girlfriend and grandfather. "But you're right… you are going somewhere."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," Maxie took his hand and dragged him off the stool. "Come on… it's a surprise."

Mike listened to the two chatter as they walked out of the diner, hoping that the face that Damian had on him at that moment wasn't just a mask. He was too young to have so much pain on his mind and heart.


	51. Defending The Misunderstood

Quatermaine Mansion-

Brook knew that she had been in the Mansion before. Had things been different it would have been at least a second home to her, if not her true home. She knew that when her parents had started out with their marriage they tried to do things differently. They tried to own a house and get away from the Quatermaine's. It didn't turn out as well as it should have, neither did their marriage. She was too young to remember much about the divorce, and for that she was at least partially thankful. She had heard stories from other kids who were old enough to remember things about when their parents divorced. Their pain was the same, but she didn't have to worry about the memories of the hurtful words that were said by both parties. She didn't have to worry about wondering if it was her fault that her parents couldn't be together anymore. She didn't have it as good as she would have liked, but it was still better than what it could have been.

Still, being the only person under the age of 20 was pretty obvious. Emily was a nice girl, Brook had spent some time with her, but she always seemed to be blabbing on about how she wanted to be with her fiancé. Brook knew that she would never let herself become so clingy as Emily had allowed herself to be with that Nikolas person she was constantly rambling about. And, try as much as she might have, she just couldn't seem to fit in with the friends that Dillon had. His girlfriend seemed nice enough, and she had found herself a musical companion in Damian, but Maxie… she was pretty sure that she hated Maxie.

Brook sat in the living room of the mansion, the room where she spent most of her time. She could feel Lila's spirit in the room, or at least she thought she could. Brook couldn't explain it. She barely knew Lila, could barely remember the faintest of memories. But when Lois told her that Lila was gone, Brook felt the pain of that loss just as much as anybody else.

With the holiday dry spell over, Ned had a full load of work that he needed to do. It wasn't something he was very proud to admit, and his grandfather had been as unresponsive as he was when Brook was an infant in giving him time to spend with his daughter. That didn't mean that Ned couldn't spend time with her. He knew that he would do everything that was in his power to make sure that Brook understood just how much he did care for her.

He saw her in the living room. There was still some time for a little chat before he had to meet with some Chinese business partners for a lunch meeting. And even if he was late, they would understand. They were fathers, or so he thought.

"Honey…"

Brook heard her father's voice. It was good to actually hear it in person rather than her just remembering what he said, or hearing him on the phone. She missed her father. She would rarely admit it, but it was the truth. Ned was her dad. She didn't fault him for everything that happened. If anything she blamed her mother, and even then she knew that Lois had reasons for doing what she did.

The teenager carefully glanced over her shoulder, trying to act nonchalant. "Hi, dad."

"What are you doing in here alone?" Ned took a seat on the couch next to her. "I know the house is big, but you could always find someone to talk with. Alice might look a little scary, but she's actually quite good at making with the small talk."

"Actually, we were playing canasta earlier," Brook liked Alice. One of those women who looked like they could rip you in half but really she was just as sweet as the next person. Unless she was around Tracy. Brook had noticed that Alice didn't really care for her grandmother, and Brook could see why. She would relate with the scorn. "But then great-grandfather said something about how she needed to get back to work cleaning up the walk-in freezer."

"I wish you could have more people around here that you could spend your free time with," Ned lowered his head. "It would have been a lot easier for you to be here if Dillon had stayed with us…"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Brook asked. "I mean, I don't really want to ask him about it because I don't want to seem like I'm prying into his life, you know? But he's over there at those penthouses living with Jason…"

"It's not something that any of us are very happy with. Especially mother…"

"Well, why don't you guys try and talk him out of it? You're family. He's young. Grandma's pretty scary, I bet she could make him come back if she wanted."

Ned chuckled. "Mother's more than 'pretty scary,' Brook Lynn. I hope you never have to see just why that statement is true. But… I wish it could be as simple as you're making it out to be. It isn't. Nothing is ever that simple in life, especially when you're a Quatermaine."

"He seems so down to earth," Brook had been keeping tabs on all of them, seeing how they acted. Dillon didn't seem to be the spoiled little rich boy type that he could have been. "It's kind of weird. You see people around here, everyone's wearing suits or dresses, even when they're just having a casual conversation. And then there's Dillon… and that hair."

The chuckle became more of an uproarious laughter. Who knew that Brook was so funny? Ned realized that he didn't know his daughter as well as he would have liked. It made him regret the choices that were made, but if anything else it made him even more determined to make sure that he made the most of what time he did have with Brook. Yes, she was home schooled, which meant that, on a technical level, she could have stayed with him even after their winter break was up, but it was Lois who could make the choice as to when they were going to leave.

"Dillon would have loved having you here, sweetheart," Ned commented. "I know that the two of you would have had a blast together. Talking about things, doing stuff together. He's been taking you around town, hasn't he?"

She nodded, "Him, his girlfriend and some other friends, too. They seem like they're good people, dad, but I don't know… I guess I don't feel like I fit in with them."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, look at them. You've got Dillon, this kid with huge dreams of being a director, and Georgie who seems like she knows everything that anyone ever needs to know in the world… plus Maxie… well, I don't know what she wants, probably to just leech off of someone for the rest of her life…"

"Brook, that's not very nice…"

"Sometimes the truth hurts," Brook retorted. She didn't know Maxie very well, but her observations had proven that she loved to latch onto whatever it was that was available. She felt quite badly for Damian, poor kid didn't deserve to have someone like that running him down. "But back to the point. Then there's Damian… I don't know about him, dad."

"You should stay away from him."

Brook was surprised by her father's insistence. "Do you know him?"

"No… we've never really met."

"So then why do you want me to stay away from him?"

"Because he's a Corinthos," Ned made the point clear and simple. "Brook, I don't know much about Damian. I know that he wants to become a doctor and Alan and Monica speak very highly of him and I have nothing against him as a person, but I know his family. I know his father. Your mother is Sonny's oldest and dearest friend. You think I don't know about the life that he leads? The danger that comes when people are around him."

"Damian doesn't want to be like Sonny," Brook defended the boy that she barely knew, and she didn't even know why she was doing it. She just felt that she couldn't let her dad talk down about a kid who seemed like he was the nicest person in the world. "I mean… how can someone who can play the piano as well as he can be a cold blooded killer? It doesn't make any sense."

"Brook, that's not making any sense either. The fact that he plays the piano…" Ned stopped for a moment, "he plays the piano?"

"You should have heard it, dad. He's not the best that I've heard, of course, but for someone who doesn't necessarily want to do it as a profession he's really good. I can see that he loves the music, just like I do."

"That's beside the point," Ned couldn't be distracted. He needed to keep his daughter safe, that was part of his job as a parent. "Brook, he's dangerous. Maybe not him on his own, but the fact that his father is who he is puts anyone who comes into contact with Damian at risk."

"Dillon's his best friend…"

"Please don't remind me," Ned begged. "That's the main reason why we don't want Dillon living with Jason. We know that Jason cares about Dillon, so does Courtney, but Dillon's just a teenager and he is bound to get hurt eventually."

"Jason Morgan can take care of your little brother better than anyone else in the world," Lois had been standing outside the door long enough to hear her ex-husband trashing the lifestyle choices of her best friend. It was true, Sonny lived a life of danger, but it wasn't something that he could have helped.

"Jason can't be everywhere," Ned got up. "Contrary to popular belief, Lois. Jason isn't some superhero who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. He's a human. What if he's too busy doing something for Sonny when Dillon needs him? What then?"

"I think you're selling them all short," Lois walked into the room, standing right by Ned. "I understand that you worry about Dillon. He's your little brother."

"He's also my godson," Ned realized how complex that claim sounded, and bizarre, but it was true. "I'm the closest thing that Dillon's ever had to a father since Paul Hornsby is never around."

"I'm sure he'd love to be around if Tracy ever let him near his son…" Lois shook her head. "But that's beside the point. Look, Dillon's a big boy, he's formidable, he can take care of himself."

"He can't survive a bullet…"

"You worry too much, Ned, you always have," Lois poured herself a glass of water. "You were always thinking about the worst when it came to Sonny."

"And how often was I right?"

"You don't know what it was like for him growing up, I do. Sonny is a tormented man, Ned. He didn't have the money that you did growing up. Even when your mom shipped you away to boarding school you were safe. Sonny wasn't. Don't even try and pretend that you can understand him, because you never could and you never will."

"Ma, lay off," Brook glared at her mother. "You can't blame dad for wanting to keep the people that he loves safe. If you weren't so busy being Sonny's best friend and reputation protector you'd probably be doing the same thing."

"I'll admit that there are times when I feel worried when I'm around Sonny Corinthos, but it is never because I feel unsafe around Sonny himself."

"He still creates the environments that make you feel uncomfortable," Ned had always tried to put a wedge between the friendship that Lois and Sonny shared. He still loved Lois. He always would. He wanted to keep her safe, even now. "Do you want your daughter to be in danger?"

"She's a Quatermaine, maybe not in name but by blood. That puts her in enough danger."

"The danger isn't constant, though… not like with Sonny." Ned looked at his watch and groaned. He was pressing time, he'd be late if he kept on arguing with Lois.

"Dad?" Brook could sense the discomforting vibes.

"Honey, I'm sorry, but if I don't meet with these people ELQ could be out on a potentially billion dollar contract. I have to go. Just remember what I said, please." Ned kissed his daughter on the cheek, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Brook Lynn watched her father leave.

Lois had walked over to the glass door and was looking at the rose garden. Lila used to love the rose garden. It was like her special place. It helped sooth Lois, keep her temper in check, at least somewhat. "The nerve of that man."

"He has a point… how many times has Sonny been shot?"

"I know, baby, I know," Lois closed her eyes, gripping the glass tightly. "I always wanted to say that I could protect Sonny from things that would hurt him. I could see it when we were growing up. He needed someone to cover for him."

"He has a wife…"

Lois laughed, "Carly's not exactly the most likely choice I'd have for Sonny's protector. I just wish that he had it easier. I wish that people didn't think so low of him. Sonny's a great person, one of the best men that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. People just need to open their eyes so they can see it, too."


	52. Present Dangers

Journeylove- Congratulations on your longest review, I am only fortunate enough to have it be for little old me… back to the point: Sonny is misunderstood. My Sonny, the show's Sonny, Sonny in other people's stories… that's pat of what makes him who he is. But the fact is that Sonny, even when misunderstood, does bad things… sometimes not even for good reasons. It's true that people choose to focus on the danger that Sonny has around him rather than seeing what is even more important to him than his business. Said people believe that the way he acts around his children is just that, an act, when it is the totality of Sonny's pain and desire to be better as a person than he was. Still, it is not impossible to see the viewpoint of those that are against Sonny, just as much as it is not hard to see those who are for him. Lois is steadfast in her defense of Sonny, having seen the battery of his life, while Ned can see only the danger that comes around Sonny, and since within the continuity of the story Ned is still Kristina's 'father.' So pitting them against each other (and it won't be the first time) just showed the polar opposites. Brook needs anyone, and I mean a-n-y-o-n-e else but Diego. She was good with Lucas, but the idiots who write the show decide to just toss that out the window without any reasoning. You'll see Brook make mistakes that mirror other people's mistakes. And as for Carly… Carly and I have a love/hate relationship. I love her passionately all the time, but there are many times when I just hate her, even within my own story. Still, I'm happy that my Carly is a Carly that you find enjoyable.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

"No, he seemed fine when he left earlier this morning," Sonny spoke softly on the phone. His coughing fit had yet to end, if anything it appeared to be getting worse. Rare was it when Sonny Corinthos was inflicted with a virus of some sort, when one managed to get through it usually meant him being laid out in his bed for a few days. He hated being helpless.

"Well, he wasn't fine when he was here," Mike had finally gotten around to calling his son on the phone. Ever the concerned grandfather, Mike was looking for clues as to Damian's distance and actions earlier that day. If anyone had the answers that he needed, his son would.

"What do you mean?"

"Sonny… it was like he wasn't even here," Mike looked around, making sure that nobody who could hear him and use the information against anyone was around. Elizabeth wasn't even there. Mike was actually quite thankful for that. He didn't want her to worry. "I was trying to talk with him and I didn't get any sort of response."

"Maybe he was just ignoring you…"

"I don't think he would do something like that. He's not you, after all." Mike wasn't sure how he should have taken the statement. If it was said in sarcasm or if it was something that he was supposed to truly think about.

"Just tell me what happened, Mike," Sonny was going to have a talk with the boy when he got home, but first he needed to have a general idea of what he was up against.

"He came in here and sat down. I gave him some tea, but he wasn't drinking it. He was just staring into it like he was looking for answers or something. I kept on trying to get his attention, but nothing I was doing was getting anywhere. Then he knocked the tea over and it spilled on his hands and the counter, that was when he snapped out of his daze."

"What'd he say when he finally came around?"

"That he was just thinking about something…"

"He's like that, Mike," Sonny commented. "You've noticed it more than a few times. He has his own little world at times and he doesn't want to let anyone, not even his family, into that part of it." Sonny could relate. There were things that he tried to keep from the people that he loved and trusted. Things that were his demons to battle and his alone.

"Is that it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're just going to accept that your son was acting highly irregular and go on with life?" Mike was disappointed. If he had been Damian's father he would have made sure that they had at least talked about it. Provided that he was the type of person that he was now and not the man that he was when he had a young son.

"Of course not. I'm going to talk with him when I see him, Mike, but right now there's nothing that we can do about it, is there? He's not here, I can't actually talk to him about it at this moment. Where did he go?"

"With Maxie. She came in right after he started talking again." Mike kept his promise to his grandson, not telling Sonny anything about the offer that was given to Damian. It didn't seem that important. "I don't know where they went, she just said that she was taking him somewhere."

"Maxie will keep him safe. She's helped him with things that nobody else has ever been able to help him with. Maybe she'll do that again with whatever he's going through right now."

"You're taking this a lot better than I had thought you would. I thought you would have people hunting down the boy and then you would make sure he talked."

Although his father couldn't see it, Sonny did grin at the statement. There was a time when he would do just what Mike was thinking he would do, but Sonny was no longer that person, and Damian wouldn't like the method that would have been employed. "I've learned a lot in the short time I've been his father, Mike. The first thing that I learned was that if I use my power against him it's only going to push him away even further. I can't risk that, not again."

"I'm glad that you realize that, Michael. I really am."

There was always a part of Sonny that felt different when his father called him by his birth name. He knew that he was really Michael Corinthos, plenty of people knew that, but Michael seemed like it was a part of his past that he wanted to be buried. Before Mike came back into his life the only person who called him 'Michael' was his mother. Perhaps that was a part of the reason.

At that moment, Jason walked into the penthouse. Seeing that Sonny was on the phone, he waited silently and patiently. He wasn't there for any pressing concerns.

Sonny saw his best friend and right hand man and nodded his head. "I've got to go. I'll make sure to let you know if something happens." Sonny put the phone back on the receiver and put his hand on his forehead.

"Something wrong?" Jason knew Sonny's body language better than most people. Whenever Sonny did that particular motion it usually meant that there was something that was troubling the man. In order to keep a lot of people happy, including Jason himself, he needed to make sure that Sonny didn't have too much on his shoulders. He was strong, but he wasn't as strong as people thought he was.

"Just the usual…"

"Michael?"

"What?" Sonny looked over at Jason, the wheels in his head finally clicking. "Oh, no… not really Michael right now. He's still a problem, but nothing that I can't handle."

"So what is it then?"

"That was Mike," Sonny grabbed the glass of water that he had poured right before he got the phone call and took a small drink. "He said that he was worried about Damian. Something about how Damian was there at Kelly's earlier and just seemed like he was spacing out."

"Is he hurt?"

"No. I don't even know why Mike is so worried. He didn't seem like he was dealing with that much earlier today. Have you seen him?"

"Not since yesterday evening. He seemed to be acting fine then. He was playing the piano when I left. You don't think that maybe he's having another relapse about…"

"Alcazar?" Sonny finished the statement for Jason. "We told him that what happened there wasn't his fault, that there was nothing that he could have done about it. What more does he want?"

"Sonny, it's not that simple, we both know that. How long did it take you to get over your first kill? Even though we're in the business that we're in, that we do the things that we do, it doesn't mean that it still doesn't take some sort of emotional toll on us. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others."

"Like me and you?"

"Yeah… but Damian's not like us. He's not even in the business. He just did what needed to be done."

"What can I do, Jason?" Sonny asked. "I've already told him time and time again that he did what was necessary. That he killed a man that was going to kill me, you, Courtney and him. Lorenzo needed to die. Our family would have been placed in a huge amount of danger if he had lived. I don't think he would have killed Carly or the boys… but she wouldn't have accepted him, especially if he killed so many of us. He was a psychopath."

"I think that this is one of those times when we can't do anything, Sonny." Jason's know what he was going to say next wouldn't be something that Sonny wanted to hear. "When you can't do anything."

"I hate feeling like I can't do anything…"

"I know," Jason nodded. He felt the same way. "But sometimes even we can't fix problems. We try and fool ourselves into thinking that we can and it just doesn't work out that way."

"Did you need something? Not that you ever need a reason to come into the house… but you looked like you needed to talk to me about something."

"There's a shipment coming in tonight," Jason got back to business, even though he knew that business was the farthest thing from Sonny's mind. "I just wanted to make sure that you remembered about it."

"I don't need to be there, do I?"

"No, you don't. Nobody does. It's for the coffee business."

"Good," sometimes Sonny felt that he didn't pay enough attention to the establishment that had no legal troubles at all.

"Sonny… if you want, I can try again."

"It won't work. I'm not giving up on him, Jason. I know that deep down he knows that he did the right thing, but at the same time I know how much damage it did to him. Everything changes when you take a life. Some of us are just better at dealing with it, like you said. I wish it could have been different. I wish I would have killed that bastard when I had the chance… but he knew how to distract me. He knew that if I saw my son bleeding and unconscious on a bed that I wouldn't care about anything else but him… I'll give this to Alcazar, he knows how to strike where it hurts."

"He's gone. So is Faith. Nobody else is going to come in and try and take over."

"I don't believe that any more than you do," Sonny knew that there would always be someone who thought that they could do the impossible and break the Corinthos-Morgan empire.

"We're still ready to deal with whatever problems might come up. Someone tries to come up and take us out? We won't go down easily."

"Sonny!" Carly's scream of her husband's name pierced through the house.

Sonny was there in an instance, Jason right behind him. "What is it? What's wrong?" Sonny looked at Carly, she had blood on her hands. "Why are your hands bleeding?"

Carly was crying, "They're not bleeding… Morgan…"

"What about Morgan?" Sonny looked in the crib. Morgan's mouth was stained with blood. "What happened? Carly!"

"I… I was in here…" Carly was sobbing. "And he started coughing… and I didn't think that it was a big deal until he kept on doing it… and then I looked down and he had blood all over him…"

"Mommy?" Michael had also come in. His mother's scream was more than enough to get him out of his room. He heard the story. "What's wrong with Morgan?"

"Buddy, just stay here, okay?" Jason got down on his knees. "Right now we need to keep our distance."

"Jason," Sonny picked up Morgan. He was breathing and his eyes were open, but he was crying as well. "Keep an eye on Michael and call the hospital, tell them we're on our way."

"Daddy, I want to go with you!"

"Carly, let's go!" Sonny was yelling, but it wasn't out of anger. His yelling was completely out of fear.

Jason could see that Carly was paralyzed with her own fear. "Carly… right now you need to be Morgan's mother. You need to make sure that he's okay. Go."

"Mommy… I'm scared…"

Tears streaming down Carly's face, she looked down at the little boy, "Mr. Man… you need to be brave right now. We all do." She ran out after her husband.

"Bobbie?" Jason was on his phone. "It's Jason. Sonny and Carly are bringing Morgan in. He's coughing up blood. No, we don't know what's wrong with him. Just have someone there…"

"Uncle Jason…"

Jason got on his knees. He was trying to act like nothing was wrong, but he knew that it was the farthest thing from the truth. "Buddy… just say a prayer for Morgan right now. That's all we can do."


	53. The Single Option

IluvCarson17- Thank you for the review and the compliment, I am glad that you are enjoying my story. As for baby Morgan, more shall be discovered inside this chapter right here.

Journeylove- Your concern over the fictional baby (without any acting from real people), is touching.

Story-

General Hospital-

There was something that Bobbie was very familiar with: fear. How many times had she had to worry about the people that she loved being hurt in some way? Her brother, her sister-in-law, nephew, nieces… all the way down to her children and her grandchildren. Despite the fact that it was a very common occurrence in Bobbie Spencer's life it wasn't something that she had developed any sort of defense for. Fear was always going to be there, nobody was stronger than that.

But Bobbie wasn't alone. She might have thought that she was alone at that moment, but there were always people around her who cared. One of them was Georgie. Bobbie was her ex-aunt, but in so many ways Bobbie was more than that. Bobbie had been there for both her and Maxie more often than Felicia had. Bobbie was the universal mother figure. Everyone knew that and accepted it. In that moment, Georgie saw the universal mom hurt and scared. Like anyone else, she wanted to help Bobbie.

Placing the charts and other folders that she had in her hand onto the counter, Georgie walked over to where Bobbie was, watching as the older woman seemed to be using the desk as a brace of some sort. "Bobbie…"

Bobbie stared at the elevator. She knew that there was no way that Sonny and Carly could bring Morgan into the hospital in a matter of seconds. Sonny had a way of getting things done, but he was still human. What was wrong with Morgan? Why couldn't Jason tell her anything? She wanted answers as she wasn't getting them. Detaching her hands from the sides of the desk, she instead put them on the top, balling her hands into fists.

Georgie watched, knowing full well that if something managed to get to Bobbie that much it wasn't a very good thing. "Bobbie," Georgie placed her hand on Bobbie's shoulder. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"I don't know… nobody does, at least not yet."

Confused, Georgie bit her lip. Bobbie was almost always the one who could keep her sense of calm in any situation, even if the world around her was crumbling, Bobbie was supposed to be the rock. Now it appeared that it was Georgie's turn to be the rock for Bobbie. "Just tell me what's bugging you, I want to help."

"That was Jason on the phone right now." Her cell phone was still on the desk, staring at her, taunting her. If she wouldn't have picked it up she would have never known, but then Morgan would have been in even more danger. She remembered his plea, "I need to get someone…"

"Bobbie…"

"Georgie, I need to page one of the doctors." Alan and Monica weren't exactly the most qualified infant doctors on the staff, and there had been more than a few who had helped Morgan when he was sick. She walked over to the intercom, "Doctor Jenkins, please report to the nurses office immediately."

Georgie was afraid, for the obvious reasons. Something was wrong. It didn't take a genius to see that something was wrong. But what was it? Maybe someone she knew about was hurt again. What if it was Dillon? Or Maxie? Or her dad? But then she remembered the name. Doctor Jenkins was one of the doctors who dealt with infant care. That narrowed the possibilities down considerably. She knew who it was almost a second later, "Morgan…"

Hearing her grandson's name made Bobbie's stomach churn. She didn't even know if he was still breathing. If he would make it to the hospital in time. Morgan meant so much to her. But she refused to let herself cry. Bobbie was a woman of many talents and qualities and she was a Spencer. They never gave up.

"What happened, Bobbie?" Georgie wondered. Bobbie had taught her many things in life, one of them was that problems didn't go away if you kept them bottled up. They didn't go away if you talked about them either, but it made things a lot easier.

"I don't know, Georgie," Bobbie looked over her shoulder. "I just got this call from Jason saying that Sonny and Carly were coming because Morgan was coughing up blood. There are so many things that it could be… and none of them are very good."

"He'll be fine."

"You don't know that!" Bobbie remarked. She saw Georgie's eyes. The girl was terrified, both for her and of her. The other people around the nurses' station were shocked as well. None of them had ever seen Bobbie act so strangely before. "Georgie… I'm sorry. I'm just really worried right now."

"It's okay," Georgie nodded. She'd done plenty of stupid things when she thought someone she cared about was hurt. It came with the territory. Thinking straight was impossible when someone that you loved was in danger. "I'm going to stay here with you in case you need someone."

Doctor Jenkins answered his page almost as quickly as it had happened. He wasn't in another section of the hospital, he was in his office that was on the same floor. "Someone paged me?"

"My grandson is sick," Bobbie's calm started to return. She knew that acting like a madwoman wouldn't help Morgan, it could only hurt him. "His parents are bringing him, but I don't know anything about what he could have. All I know is that he was coughing up blood. Please, stay here until they can get here… please…"

"Of course," the doctor nodded. "You've already told me something that could help with a diagnosis." The coughing up of blood was a hint to what could be wrong with Morgan. "I'll stay right here until they come."

Although it seemed like an eternity only a few minutes passed before Sonny and Carly managed to make it into the hospital. Bobbie walked over to them and looked at her grandson. He was so pale, except for his mouth, which was a rich blood red.

"Mama…"

"Give Morgan to the doctor, Carly," Bobbie said calmly and firmly. "You got him here, he's still breathing. We need to use the time that we have."

Carly knew that her mother was right. She walked over to the doctor, his arms held open. "Make him feel better…"

"I'll do everything that I can," Doctor Jenkins looked at the child. He didn't look like he was doing all that well, but the doctor wasn't ready to give up hope yet. "It might be easier for one of you to come with me. Morgan might react better if one of his parents is around, or at least someone who he trusts."

"I'll go." Sonny looked over at Carly, "Stay with your mother. If anything happens I'll come get you."

Carly watched as the doctor and Sonny walked around the corner. Her eyes were red, the tears had not yet stopped. In that moment, all that mattered was having someone there for her, and her mother was right there. Without a moment's hesitation, Carly fell into her mother's arms, sobbing as Bobbie gently wrapped her arms around her daughter.

They continued to wait as the minutes turned into more. Every few minutes Carly would insist that something was wrong with her child, but Bobbie would be there to make sure that Carly didn't let her imagination get the better of her. General Hospital was a good hospital, they had saved Morgan many times before.

Georgie came to the lounge area. She had watched the mother and daughter from a close distance. She wanted to be there with Bobbie and Carly, but she knew that it was something that they needed to deal with alone. She wondered why Damian wasn't around. His baby brother was sick and he wasn't there with his family? Nobody else seemed to be around either. Like it caught them all by surprise or something.

"Here," Georgie put down two cups of coffee. "Something to calm your nerves down…"

Carly tried to take the cup in her hand, but her hand was still shaking as her nerves continued to act of their own free will. Knowing that she didn't want the coffee to scald her hand, she just left it there. She tried to smile, but she realized that she couldn't. "Thank you, Georgie… maybe I'll have some a little later."

"If either of you need anything, anything at all, I'll be right at the station doing some filing. Nothing that I need to keep my full attention on."

"We'll keep that in mind," Bobbie was holding onto her daughter's hand. She could see that Morgan's blood was still caked onto Carly's tender flesh.

"I'm so scared, Mama…"

"I know you are, honey. I am too, but that doesn't mean that we can just keep on acting like this. We need to be strong for Morgan right now." Bobbie took a wipe out of her pocket and started to get the blood off of her daughter's hands as best she could. It wouldn't work entirely, but anything was better than nothing. "You need to tell me what happened… I'm sure Sonny's already told the doctor everything that he knows, but I want to hear it from you."

"He was coughing," Carly didn't really wish to remember the occurrences, but she knew that it was in Morgan's best interests. "I didn't think that there was much of a problem until he kept on doing it and then I looked down to see what was wrong and his clothes were stained with red and so was his mouth. I didn't feed him anything that was red… and then I knew what it was and I screamed for Sonny…"

"And he wasn't coughing anytime before? Not yesterday, not even a little?"

"No," Carly shook his head. "Yesterday he was fine. We were laughing and I was reading to him… everything was just so perfect."

"Carly…"

Carly's head shot up when she heard her husband's voice. Sonny had taken off his jacket, which was placed over one of his arms. She tried to read his face, but she knew that it was impossible. Instead, she got up and hugged him. "Sonny… what's wrong with our baby?"

"I don't know," Sonny hugged her back. "The doctor has some theories, and he said that everything that it could be is something that they can treat… but he hasn't pinpointed it yet." Sonny started to cough as well.

Carly got worried. "Sonny, maybe you should get yourself checked out. I don't want you to be coughing up blood, too."

"Not right now. My son needs me, I'm not going to do anything that would take me away from Morgan right now."

"Mr. and Mrs. Corinthos?" Doctor Jenkins walked up.

"Where's my son?" Carly asked.

"He's still in the room where we examined him." Doctor Jenkins had a sheet in his hand. "We've found what the problem is. Morgan has a viral infection that is attacking his immune system. His coughing is because of the lack of antibodies that his body is giving him, the increased frequency of the coughing explains why he's been coughing up blood."

"Is it deadly?" Bobbie held onto Carly's hand from behind her daughter.

"In infants, it can be fatal, yes," the tone of the doctor's voice changed. "But there are ways that we can treat it. The best way is with a transfusion, and it would also be best if the blood came from a family member. Which one of you has Morgan's blood type?"

"Sonny does," Carly knew the answer. Michael had her blood type, Morgan had Sonny's.

"Where do I…" Sonny coughed again, "Where do I need to go in order to start the transfusion?"

The doctor had observed Sonny the whole time. He feared that Sonny was the one who had Morgan's blood type. "Right now, Mr. Corinthos, it would not be advised that you give your son any blood. You're ill, perhaps not very ill, but at the moment anything that could bring another sickness into Morgan's system would do more harm than good."

"What about Mike or Courtney?" Carly asked.

Sonny shook his head, "I have my mother's blood type, Courtney has Mike's… they wouldn't work."

"Georgie," Bobbie looked over to the girl at the desk. "Check for Damian's information in the system. We had to do a blood test when he came to see if Sonny was his father, we'll have his blood on file."

Georgie wasted no time, punching in the patient's name and looking at the blood type. She cross referenced Morgan's file and saw that they were a match. "He's a match."

"He's not sick as well, is he?" Doctor Jenkins asked.

"No, I don't think so," Sonny pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial that would call Damian directly. It continued to ring, but there was no answer. "He's not picking up… dammit!"

"Keep trying," Carly looked at her husband. "Right now he's probably the best chance that Morgan has at staying alive!"


	54. Nearly Missed Calls

Sonny's hand was shaking with the intensity and the weariness of a man that was looking to do something that would save the life of his infant son. Damian wasn't picking up the phone, and Sonny had already let it ring to the message box three times. He left no message, he needed his son to pick up the phone right away, not leave a message for him to listen to in a few hours. Or even minutes. Sonny didn't really know how much time Morgan had. He would have already done the transfusion himself, but as the doctor had pointed out, Sonny's blood at that moment, fighting off some sort of viral infection of its own, was the last thing that Morgan needed in his own system.

"Why the hell isn't he picking up the damned phone?" Sonny's anger and fear were intensified.

Bobbie watched her son-in-law. She knew how much the boys meant to Sonny, that was part of the reason why she had stopped trying to push Carly away from him. Even with all his problems, Sonny was the best father that Michael and Morgan were likely to get. Bobbie also knew that Carly wasn't going to be much help in the situation. "Do you even know where he is?"

Sonny didn't know the exact location, but he had enough information for there to be something that he could have done. "Maxie… he's with Maxie." His brown eyes shot over to Georgie. "Georgie, please call your sister… if she picks up…"

"I'll tell her to bring him right over, Mr. Corinthos," Georgie never thought that she would have to help Sonny Corinthos in any endeavor. But it was better for her to help him save Morgan's life than it was to make an illegal shipment of some sort. Mac couldn't hold it against Georgie for wanting to help a baby live a healthy life, could he?

Pulling out her phone, Georgie pressed the button on her phone that would connect to Maxie's phone. She turned her back to the three adults, not wanting to let any of them actually look at her. She knew that a lot was depending on her getting through to her sister, but what if Maxie wasn't answering the phone either? One ring, followed by another. There was nothing but continued ringing. "Come on, Maxie… pick up." Finally, the sound of Maxie's voice was heard, but it was her voicemail.

Dejected and afraid, the teen knew that she needed to tell Sonny and Carly the truth. Would they be upset with her? "I'm really sorry… but she's not answering right now either. I'll keep on trying…"

"So will I," Sonny didn't hold the girl at fault. How could she be responsible for her sister? They weren't even around one another.

Elsewhere-

"This has really helped," Damian held Maxie's hand, feeling the cool metal of the bracelet press against his warm wrist.

"I thought it would," Maxie smiled. She loved it when she could have him all to herself. There wasn't anyone else around but the two of them. It didn't seem to happen that often. "I saw you… I knew that you would want to get away from whatever it was that was bothering you."

"It's still bothering me," Damian said softly. "I don't think it will ever stop bothering me."

She looked over at him. He had always been such a strong person. He had helped her through so much and even when his own life was in shambles, like when he was in prison, facing a life of being incarcerated for something that he didn't do, Damian still managed to somehow keep his cool. He wasn't that type of person at that moment. She saw him for what he was at the core of his being. Afraid, alone.

She did the only thing that she felt she could have done. She gripped his hand even tighter, feeling their bodies lock together at the fingertips. "You know, when I'm not going through one of my many problems, most of which you've helped me with in some way or the other, I'm a pretty good listener."

"I don't need you to listen."

She lowered her eyes, hurt by the comment. "Is it because you don't trust me enough?" She knew that trust was something that meant the world to him, but she also knew that he didn't really trust her with everything, because he didn't have a choice. If Damian could have, he would have been honest with her about everything, but he was a Corinthos. There was a code that he had been forced into, however unwittingly it may have been.

"Of course not," he denied the claim, since it was as far from the truth as it possibly could have been. "I don't need you to listen to my problems because having you around me makes them easier to deal with. You, just being here, its enough, Maxie. It's all that I need."

They walked back to the bench where their jackets were placed over the side. They had been looking out at the partially frozen lake. The body of water was too large to be completely frozen, but there were still chunks of frozen ice that drifted about. The light bounced off of them in a beautiful manner.

"But if you wanted to talk to me about whatever it is that's bugging you, you would, right?"

"Why would I want to ruin a moment like this with something that doesn't matter?" Damian asked. "Our lives are complicated Maxie, all lives are. Something just seems to like putting us through turmoil more than I would have ever expected. How often do we get moments like this? Where it's just the two of us, alone, in love?"

"And what do you intend to do with this moment of ours?" Maxie grinned devilishly.

"I'll show you," he leaned in to give her a sweet and tender kiss on the lips, but something stopped him from doing it. The sound of his phone going off. Groaning, he pulled his head away, looking at the jacket, "I think I jinxed it…"

"You didn't have to."

"It sounds like your phone is ringing, too…"

"Whatever it is, it can wait," she took the moment to finish what he had almost started, pushing herself forward, hands wrapped around his neck as their lips came together. The sound of the phones ringing simultaneously were not silenced, but in that moment, they certainly didn't seem to matter.

Morgan Household-

"Hey, what's up?" Dillon knew that it was Georgie on the other line from the caller ID. He was editing some of the footage that he had filmed with the present that Courtney and Jason had gotten. He had to be extra careful with what ended up making it to the final cut. Anything with him and his friends was okay, but if there was even the slightest glimpse of Sonny, Jason or any of the other people in the organization… things became much more complicated.

"Dillon…"

Dillon stopped what he was doing. He knew the sound of Georgie's voice better than anyone else. He knew how she sounded when she was happy, but he also knew how she sounded when she was scared, hurt or sad. His mood switched over to that of extreme concern. "Georgie, what's wrong?"

"Morgan's really sick…"

"Baby Morgan?"

"Yeah," she took a minute to get it together. Sonny and Carly were starting to make her feel even more worried. They were in such pain, it was easy to empathize. "And right now the best shot that he has of getting better is getting a blood transfusion, but Sonny can't give it to him because he's sick right now… and nobody can get in touch with Damian."

"He's not over here… I haven't seen him today."

"I know. He's with Maxie. But she's not picking up her phone either and now I'm worried about them. What if something happened?" She was careful to keep her voice down. If it hadn't occurred to Sonny that something might have happened to yet another one of his children then she didn't want to be the one who brought the matter to his attention.

"Georgie, don't think like that right now," Dillon got off the couch. "You know what? I'm going over to the hospital right now. Do you want me to stay on the line?"

"No. I need to keep on trying to call Maxie. Dillon, if you could try Damian's cell… I don't know. Maybe if he sees how many people are trying to get in touch with him right now he'll know that something is wrong."

"That's a good idea," he wasn't saying it simply to make her feel like she was doing something that was helpful, it really was a good idea. "I'll keep trying until one of us gets through. What do I tell him if I talk to him?"

"Tell him that he needs to get over to the hospital right away…"

"Georgie, stay calm, okay? Right now you need to do your best to make sure that Sonny and Carly keep themselves together, and you can't do that if you're barely able to stand. Everything is going to be all right. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. Hurry, Dillon. Please." Georgie ended the call.

Dillon grabbed his jacket and frantically put it on, his fingers moving as quickly as they possibly could. "Come on, man, pick up your stupid phone!" He shut the door to the penthouse, the phone continuing to ring.

General Hospital-

"Was that Maxie?"

Georgie spun around to see Carly standing right there. "What? N-no… it was Dillon…"

Carly's temper flared. "We asked you to call your sister, why the hell are you calling your boyfriend while my baby is dying? I know how erratic those teenage hormones can be, Georgie, but nothing should take priority over Morgan right now!"

"I… I…"

"Carly, stop," Bobbie pulled her daughter away from the innocent and scared teenager. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Helping Georgie get her priorities straight!"

"I called him because I figured that if more people were calling Damian he would know that something was wrong…" Georgie was still shaking. Carly was nice some times, but more often than not she was intimidating. In that precise moment, she was just downright scary.

"Good idea," Bobbie complimented Georgie before once more directing her attentions to her daughter. "See? Georgie was thinking about your son. She couldn't get in touch with her sister, but that doesn't mean that she just gave up entirely."

"Okay… I'm sorry, Georgie." Carly meant the apology, but being sympathetic or apologetic was something that she wasn't really capable of doing in that moment. "Please, keep trying with Maxie…"

Elsewhere-

"Who the hell keeps on calling us?" Maxie wasn't happy with whoever it was that was keeping her from her alone time with her boyfriend. "Why don't we just turn the phones off…"

"I…" Damian was welcome to go with the plan, until he saw the phone and saw how many calls that he had missed. "Maxie…"

"What?"

"I've missed six phone calls already. Five from my father, one from Dillon… all within the past five minutes…"

"That's strange." Maxie was digging through her purse for her phone when she heard Damian's go off again.

"Hello?"

"Why the hell haven't you been picking up your phone?" Sonny was grateful that he had gotten through, yet angered that it had taken so long.

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"You need to be at General Hospital… now."

"What happened?"

"Morgan needs you," Sonny was cryptic, something that probably didn't help the situation. "Just hurry."

Damian was spooked. Morgan needed him? "Maxie… I need to go to the hospital, Morgan's there… dad says that he needs me."

"I'll come with you. It's not that far…" Maxie felt the guilt that came with the realization that she was the one who had kept him from the phone. Now his baby brother was in danger, and she was going to have him turn off his phone? It didn't matter, all that mattered was getting to Morgan in time. If they had time.


	55. Pleas and Forgiveness

General Hospital-

"You spoke to him, right?" Carly was still frantic and finding it hard to think straight, but she knew, or at least thought she knew, that Sonny had gotten in touch with his son. "He's coming, isn't he?"

"Carly," Sonny was only slightly calmer than his wife, but it was hard to try and keep a level head. Sonny's ability to remain collected was often called into question, but when one of his children happened to be in danger there was really no stopping him from thinking about anything that could make the problem right. "He's coming."

She gave a sigh of complete relief, but she knew that the danger wasn't completely past them. "Where was he?"

"I don't know."

"Well… what if he's in the city or something?" Carly's momentary relief was completely shattered when her husband revealed that he had no idea where Damian was. "What if he can't get here in time? Sonny… our baby is dying and Damian's the only one who might have a shot at saving him…"

"Don't you think I know that?" Sonny inquired. "Carly… whatever you're going through right now, they are the same exact feelings that I'm going through right now. Don't do this to yourself, or to me. We have to believe that he's going to get here in time, because I know that if we keep on thinking that he won't it will only make the situation worse."

"He wouldn't leave Port Charles without telling somebody that he was going to be in another town, right?" Bobbie was standing next to Georgie. "He's responsible… where else would he go?"

"If he's with Maxie, I don't think that he went out of town. She has a shift in a few hours… if she wanted to go to the city with him she would have gotten the day off." Unless she decided to just not show up. Maxie was prone to having fits of whimsy like that from time to time. Georgie just prayed that her sister wasn't going through something like that… because it would have been the worst possible time.

Sonny picked up his phone again, gripping it in his hand. Everything had come down to a phone call. The only thing he could do to keep Morgan alive was call people on the phone. He'd been reduced to nearly nothing.

Carly saw Sonny. She knew how hard it was for him. She wished that she could have done something for him but the way that she was acting pretty much made it impossible for her to do anything that would actually be of any sort of help. "Who are you calling?"

"Jason," Sonny muttered. "We rushed out of the house so fast because we needed to get him here as fast as we could, but I know Michael was worried about Morgan… and Jason would be, too." He looked at his wife. "Do you want to make the call?"

"I can't right now, Sonny. Jase would just want to do something that would make me feel better and right now there's nothing that he can do, I know that and he does, but it wouldn't stop him from trying. I don't want him to do something that's just going to end up not being helpful."

"I understand." Sonny took a few steps away from the gathered crowd, phone pressed to his ear, brow furrowed because of stress and worry.

Corinthos Household-

Jason had moved to Michael's room with the young boy, looking for something to get Michael's mind off of what had happened, but he knew that it was nothing more than an effort in futility. Michael knew that something was wrong with Morgan, why would he forget about it?

"Uncle Jason…" Michael hadn't even started to play with any of his toys. Even the ones that were new. His mind wasn't on playing with toys, it was on his baby brother. "Is Morgan going to die?"

Jason looked down at Michael. Their bond was strong, one of complete trust. Jason tried his hardest never to lie to Michael, even when he probably should have. In that moment, Jason Morgan didn't know what he was going to tell Michael, because he didn't know what answer he was looking for.

Michael understood the silence. People always talked about how Jason would never say anything, but Michael had always been able to get him to talk. "It's okay… you know, if you tell me that you don't know. Mommy, daddy, Damian, everyone else… they'd probably tell me that he's going to be okay."

"We need to believe that he's going to be okay, buddy. Nobody wants Morgan to die."

"I know… I don't want him to die either. I love Morgan. But I know that when people get sick sometimes they don't get better, like with Damian's mom. She was really sick and then she died."

"This is different," Jason slipped down from the bed to the floor to be with Michael. "Damian's mother had something really bad. I don't know what Morgan has right now, but I know that if the doctors over at the hospital can do something to make him all better they will."

Michael scooted over to Jason's side, "I just wish there was something I could do…"

"We both do, Michael." Jason put his arm around the child that he cared for like he was still Michael's father. He knew the role was ceded to Sonny, but Jason would fight for Michael until his dying breath.

The sound of his phone going off caught Jason's attention as he reached into his pocket. He stared at the name for a lingering second. Sonny. What if he was calling to tell them that it was too late? Even if that was the case, Jason knew that Michael needed to know. He put the phone to his ear, "Sonny?"

"How's Michael?"

"He's worried… we both are."

Michael looked up, "Is that dad?"

Jason covered the phone with his hand, "Yeah, it is."

"Can I talk to him?" Michael asked.

"Are you sure you want to?"

"Please…"

Jason nodded his head and handed the phone over to the young boy. Whatever problems Michael was having with his father and his older brother they didn't matter when compared to what they were facing with Morgan.

"Daddy?"

Sonny was surprised by both the silence that was given, however momentary it was, and the fact that he was now speaking to his son for the first time in a few days. "Michael, did Jason go somewhere?"

"No… I just wanted to talk with you. How's Morgan? Did the doctors make him all better?"

Sonny didn't relish the idea of telling his boy that Morgan was still in some risk, but he also knew that there weren't many options available to him at that moment. "Right now the doctors are waiting for Damian to come. Morgan's sick and he needs something that only your big brother can give him."

"What… what if it doesn't work?"

Sonny leaned his head against the pillar in the hospital. How was he going to explain mortality to a nine year old? "We just have to hope that it does work right now, buddy. Listen… you know how much I love you, right?"

"Daddy, I'm sorry… for everything. Just make sure that Morgan's all right, that's all I want. I'll give Uncle Jason the phone back."

Jason took the phone from the diminutive hand, "What's wrong with Morgan?"

"He has a virus that's attacking his immune system," Sonny knew that Jason would have a better understanding of the technical terms than Michael. He coughed a few times away from the phone. "Normally it wouldn't be that bad, but because he's just a little boy… it's doing more damage than it would to someone who is even Michael's age."

"What are they going to do?"

"They're going to give him blood with healthy antibodies and hopefully that will have some positive effect on him."

"They have plenty of blood at the hospital, why haven't they tried anything yet?"

"Because the doctor said that it would work better if someone in the family gave him the blood. He has my blood type, but I can't give him any of my blood right now because I have this cold that will apparently only make things worse."

"If he doesn't have any immunity right now…" Jason knew a thing or two about how things worked inside the human body. "So if you can't give him your blood, then why aren't they giving him the blood that they have?"

"Because Damian has the same type as Morgan and I. He's on his way over right now, Jason. We're all waiting on pins and needles for him to actually walk through those doors and none of us knows how far he is from the hospital. If Damian can't give him the blood that he needs… then we'll have to go with another procedure. They… they said that if they don't get this problem fixed in time it could be fatal."

"It won't be like that, Sonny."

Sonny heard the elevator open and looked over, seeing his son push himself through the barely open doors, "He's here, Jason. I'll call you back when I have more news."

"Carly," Damian saw his step-mother first, "what's wrong?"

"Morgan needs your blood…"

Doctor Jenkins was thankful that the young man had managed to make it as quick as he had, but he saw something that was wrong with Damian. "Are you ill as well? You're pale… out of breath…"

"Ran… from… park." He put his palm up, "Feel… fine…"

"Hear that?" Sonny asked the doctor. "Please… just take him to go see Morgan and start with the transfusion."

Doctor Jenkins agreed that it was best for the procedure to start as quickly as possible. "Please follow me, you'll have plenty of time to catch your breath while we get everything ready."

"How long is this going to take?" Carly grabbed Sonny's hand for the emotional support once more.

"It depends on how well Morgan reacts to the transfusion," the doctor started to walk away, "but this is the best chance that we have. There's no real estimate that wouldn't be more than a guess. I'll come and let you know when something changes."

"This should have never happened," Sonny was angry at himself for letting Morgan get as sick as he did.

"Sonny, it was an airborne virus. Morgan was safe in your home… or at least as safe as he could have been. What happened wasn't your fault." Bobbie knew what Morgan had. The success rate was actually quite high as far as recovery went, but she wasn't about to say that fact… she didn't want to be wrong.

Sonny let go of Carly's hand and started to walk away. "I need to be alone for a little while. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Sonny…"

"Carly," Bobbie's hand went on Carly's shoulder. "Right now, he needs the time alone. Give it to him."

Chapel-

Sonny knew exactly where he was going. How many times had he been in the very chapel, looking to spirits that he couldn't even see for help and support? It didn't matter. Sonny was raised to believe in things like angels and guardian spirits. He believed it with all his heart and soul.

Walking over to the nearest unlit candle, Sonny created a small flickering ember on the wick. After saying a short prayer he looked up at the ceiling. "Stone… I've always believed that you would guard my children and their spirits in ways that only you could. I believe that you're the reason why I haven't lost any of them yet… please, Stone, help Morgan make it through this. Don't let them take my baby away."


	56. Breaking Point

General Hospital-

The door to the elevator once more opened. Maxie Jones walked out of the device and headed directly for the nurses' station, where she stood, supporting herself against the desk as she tried to catch her breath.

If it were any other time, if there was something considerably less severe than the life of an infant at risk, Georgie would have gotten a slight chuckle out of seeing her big sister winded. Instead, all she wanted was a familiar face. She would have preferred Dillon, but Maxie was as good a substitute as she was going to get.

"Where… is… he…" Maxie wondered in between her heavy breathing. She didn't know that he could run so fast. It shouldn't have surprised her. People did things that seemed inhuman when someone that they loved was at risk. She'd heard the stories of those old grandmothers who lifted cars to save their grandchildren.

"He went with Doctor Jenkins," Georgie grabbed her bottle of water from under the desk and handed it over to her sister. "They're doing everything they can to save Morgan's life right now."

Maxie could finally breathe without needing to suck in excess amounts of air. "I wish I could have been with him one last time before he went over there. To tell him that everything was going to be okay…"

"I'm sure he knows that you're hoping for the best just like the rest of us," Georgie gave a meek but comforting smile. "Besides… none of us can be too certain about what is really going to happen."

"My son won't die," Carly glared coldly at Georgie. "Morgan's going to make it through. He's a strong baby…"

"Luke would say that he's a Spencer, which makes him impossible to kill," Bobbie did wish that her brother was around more often, especially when she really needed someone. She loved Carly dearly, but Luke knew her better than she probably knew herself.

"Where were you at, Maxie?" Carly noted her mother's words, but didn't feel like joking around when it involved the fate of her child. She wanted answers, and since she wasn't going to get them from the doctor anytime soon she would ask people who she thought she could get them from.

"We were in the park…"

"And do cell phones not get any service in the park?"

Bobbie knew where her daughter was heading with the conversation. "Carly…"

Maxie was intimidated by Carly. There was still plenty of bad blood that existed between the two of them. They'd probably never see eye to eye. Even though Carly wasn't trying to make Damian leave anymore, Maxie still remembered everything that Carly had done when she didn't think that Damian was 'worthy' of being a member of her family. "Carly, I'm really sorry about what happened to Morgan, but we had no way of knowing that something was going to happen."

"That doesn't answer my question, young lady."

"Look," Maxie was tired and stressed, just like Carly. She wasn't in the mood to fight, but Carly apparently wanted verbal blows to be thrown. "We were at the park, we left our jackets, which had our cell phones, on the bench and we were standing far enough away that we couldn't hear them."

"So while you two are having a good time my son is fighting for his life…"

"Carly!" Bobbie knew that Carly was going to lash out at anyone, but she had already picked one defenseless young woman, why did she have to pick on the other?

"What do you want me to say, Carly?" Maxie was nearly as angry at the world as Carly was. "That I wish we wouldn't have been so far away that we didn't hear the phones ring? I am. Do you want me to say that I really wished that things would have been different for Morgan? Because I do. But that doesn't change the facts. You're in pain right now because your son is sick, we all understand that and we all empathize with you… but stop trying to vilify people who are just as helpless in the ordeal as you are."

"Don't tell me how to act."

"That's enough, Carly," Sonny came back from the chapel in time to see most, if not all, of the scene unfolding. He walked over to her and pulled her aside. "You can't be doing this. I know what you're feeling. But it's not Maxie's fault… nobody is at fault here."

Carly sunk her head into Sonny's shoulder, "I just want my baby to be all right."

Georgie tapped her sister on the shoulder, "When did you start using 'vilify?'"

Maxie gave a sigh of disgust, "I'm not in the mood to joke around right now, Georgie."

Children's Wing-

Morgan was inside a plastic box with only a few holes, like an incubator, but for larger children. Damian understood why they put him in one. Morgan's immune system was nearly destroyed by whatever virus was attacking his body. Even though the hospital was as sterile as it could possibly get there was still the chance of something getting in. He had to wash his body off with anti-bacterial soap to make sure that something from his skin didn't leak into his blood and make his brother even worse.

They were alone together. It was a rarity, and Damian knew it. He loved Morgan dearly, but that didn't mean that he was completely comfortable around the infant, and that was when Morgan was healthy and smiling. Now Morgan was so pale. His eyes weren't even open.

Damian could feel the tears welling in his eyes as the severity of the situation began to sink into his mind. Morgan could die. Even with Damian's blood… there was still the chance that they had waited too long. He put his hand over the box, "I'm sorry, Morgan… I wish I could have been here sooner."

Doctor Jenkins walked into the room, "You've given blood before, correct?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Take as much as you need…"

"It shouldn't be that much," the doctor readied the needle for injection. "Hopefully we caught this in time."

"Do you think that he'll make it?"

There was the long silence that followed. There was always the silence that came after that question was asked. Every doctor, no matter how skilled they may have been, couldn't work miracles when there was nothing that could be done. M organ's case was different, there was something that could be done. "Many children have gotten this before, even in countries that don't have the kind of resources that we do. Sometimes it can be fatal, but with Morgan… I truly believe that we caught this in time. I can't make any guarantees, however."

"No, I know you can't…" he shouldn't have asked the question. How stupid and inconsiderate of him was it for asking that very question? He wanted to be a doctor, he knew the responsibilities that came with the job. To place that much of a burden on Doctor Jenkins was entirely unfair.

"We have a machine that is giving read outs of his white blood cell count. If they spike up we'll know that the transfusion is having the desired results."

"Can I… can I stay in here with him, even after I've given the blood?" It was an innocent request. He didn't want Morgan to be alone with strangers. Sure, they didn't spend that much time together, but Morgan knew him.

"Of course…"

Lounge Area-

Dillon had arrived some time after Maxie. He didn't run from the penthouse to the hospital, and Georgie called him as soon as she found out that Damian had been contacted. It should have made things considerably better, but there was still the doubt. It was always going to be there, until they knew that Morgan was going to be okay it was going to be there.

He watched Sonny and Carly. Dillon had lived with them, or at least around them, for months. He saw how they worked. How much they loved their children. It made all those horrible things that the Quartermaine's said about Sonny and Carly and how they were raising Michael entirely untrue. Sonny was a better man than AJ could have ever been, even with all his darkness and secretive nature, Sonny cared about Michael more than AJ could have.

"Carly," Sonny was holding her hand as tightly as he could without hurting her. "Just so you know… I spoke to Michael and Jason, told them what had happened."

"How are they?"

"Scared, but who isn't right now? Jason's going to stay with Michael, I know he is. I told him that I would call when I had more news."

"Why is this taking so long?" Carly had been in the hospital for nearly an hour. She hated waiting.

"Carly… everything takes time," Bobbie had put all her calls on hold while she addressed the family emergency. The other nurses understood and were covering for her. It showed how much of a community General Hospital was. When one person needed the time to themselves the others pitched in.

"I just want an answer…"

"I know, honey, I know."

Children's Wing-

Damian had given the blood. There was the residual lightheadedness that came with it, but he knew that he would survive. He also knew that he would feel horribly if he did and Morgan didn't. Would he be able to forgive himself for failing his baby brother like this? It wasn't like what happened with his mother, but it seemed to be so similar. They were both slipping away from him and there was nothing that he could do.

When he heard the door open he assumed that it was Doctor Jenkins coming back in, so he paid the sound no mind. It wasn't until he heard a different sounding voice that he turned around. "Doctor Quartermaine…"

"Monica," she corrected him. "Please, call me Monica."

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I just thought I would check on Morgan while I was in the area. I know Bobbie is with Carly right now, so I would at least have something to give her. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I asked Doctor Jenkins if I could stay in here with him while we waited to see if the transfusion worked. That's all right, isn't it? If you need me to leave… I will."

"No, its fine, Damian. Don't worry about it. Have you eaten anything? You're supposed to after you give blood… orange juice and anything else."

"I'm not worried about myself right now, Monica."

"Then let me worry about you for you," she saw a food cart being wheeled by and stopped the woman pushing it for a moment while she surveyed the contents. They always had a little extra in case someone else was around, so she didn't have to worry about shorting some child. "Here… but I really must insist that you actually have a full meal sometime soon."

"Once I see that Morgan…" he stopped. He didn't want to say something that would end up turning into a false statement. "Once I see a change in Morgan's condition I'll go and eat something… or have someone bring me something from Kelly's." He thought about his grandfather when he mentioned the restaurant. Had anyone even told Mike about Morgan? Did it fall to him?

"This is always the hardest part of my job, you know that?" She looked at the baby inside the plastic container. "It's always horrible when you see something happening to people, even people that you don't know. But there's something that's just so much more depressing and painful about seeing a baby or a young child in here. It's like we think that their innocence should keep them from ever having any sort of pain."

"If only the world worked out like that…"

"Yes, that would be ideal."

"Monica, can I ask you something?"

"I'm right here, if you need to ask me something, go right ahead."

He wasn't sure how to word the question, but he did his best just going with what came out, "Why did you give me the chance to start an early internship with you? I know how you must feel about my family and how they took Michael away… so why give it to me, the son of Sonny Corinthos?"


	57. Recovery Time

Monica found the question to be unexpected, but she wasn't exactly surprised by it. She hadn't yet looked at the young man, at least not fully, but when he asked her that question, drudging up history that he had no part of, she did. It was a lot like what Dillon and Emily had gone through when they first came into the Quartermaine family. A history with a lot of enemies and past regrets that were automatically thrust onto them simply because they were members of the family. Damian didn't really know anything about what had happened with Michael, he wasn't there, but he was the impartial third party, thrust into a problem that wasn't his to begin with.

"We let Sonny take Michael away from our son," Monica began, "because we didn't really care about what happened at that time. We weren't acting like we should have. But by the time we came to our senses it was too late. Sonny was already the father that Michael needed. We lost our chance. But we never stopped loving him. Michael might well be the only grandchild I'll ever have, Damian, and yet he'll never actually see me as anything more than his biological grandmother. There won't ever be that connection that he has with Bobbie."

"You… you didn't answer the question."

"I was getting to it. I know what its like to love someone even when they're not really yours. Jason and Emily are both my children through adoption. I didn't bring them to life, they weren't developed inside of me, but it doesn't matter. I love them just as much, sometimes more, than I do AJ. I may not agree with Sonny's parenting methods at times, it actually happens quite frequently, but I know the love that you can feel for a child that isn't even yours. Michael gives Sonny that same look that Jason… used to give me." It was painful to admit that Jason would never see her as the person that she wanted to be in his life. She'd never let herself forget that, no matter how hard she tried. "And he does the same for you. You're his big brother, Damian."

"I'm very lucky to have someone like him in my life. I didn't know how to do anything, at least I thought I didn't. But there was something inside of me, Monica… something that told me that I needed to do whatever I could to make sure that he had a happy childhood. I thought of him as a member of my family before I thought of my own father as my father. It was strange… and I know that even if I didn't acknowledge Sonny Corinthos as my father… or anyone else for that matter, Michael and Morgan would be my brothers."

"You're so much like Jason at times that it's actually a little scary." With Lila gone, Emily was pretty much the only one who Jason actually used the familial term on. Emily would always be Jason's 'sister.' Even when nobody else was his 'mother,' 'father,' or anything else, Emily would somehow merit that acknowledgement. She envied Emily, but she didn't want to take that away.

"You might not want to tell him that…"

"He cares about you. You know that, right?"

"I'm not his favorite person right now. I learned the hard way that doing something for Jason Morgan isn't exactly as favorable as doing something with him."

"Believe me, I know what that feels like. All too well."

Damian saw Morgan move in the small area that had been allotted to him. His hopes were dashed when he realized that the baby was just moving in his sleep. It was better than not moving at all, but he was really hoping that he would see Morgan's eyes open, or something that would let him know that the baby was okay.

Monica saw the shift, too. She wasn't as saddened by the implication as Damian, but she knew what he was hoping for. The same thing that she was hoping for. "To answer your question… I gave you the offer because you deserve it. It has nothing to do with the fact that your father is Sonny Corinthos. Just because your father and I may not see eye to eye doesn't mean that I have to hold it against you."

"Do you mind sending a memo out to all the people who do hold the fact that he's my father against me?" Damian requested, knowing full well that it wasn't going to do anything. "Your sister-in-law would be at the top of that list."

"Don't worry about Tracy. She has nothing better to do with her time than make sure that everyone else is having a horrible time with their lives. It's like she's playing some sick, twisted game and only she knows the rules or how to win, which she's never actually done, incidentally."

"So… you made the offer based entirely on my merits as a person alone? Not because of who my father is… or because Bobbie thinks of me as a member of her family? Or even because I'm your nephew's best friend, your grandson's big brother and your son's nephew?"

"I would have made the offer to you even if you weren't all those things, because the connections that you make with people aren't really who you are. You're a bright young man, Damian… you're also more than capable of being a doctor. I still don't understand why you didn't jump on the offer when you had the chance. We're running out of time before the semester starts up again."

"I didn't know if I was ready for the responsibility that came with being an intern yet. I know that it's not exactly the same as being a full time doctor, but there's still going to be plenty of pressure on me and a lot of expectations. What if I crack under everything?"

"That's why you're an intern… it's not your job to do everything. Leave it to us. You just watch us, learn from us, help us when we need it. Believe me, I've been an intern before, I can tell you that compared to being a doctor, a full time doctor, it's essentially next to nothing."

He knew that she was right. He would have the safety net that the doctors would give him while he was interning. And he had to do it eventually. It was better for him to get it done quicker, to get the experience that came with actually being at the hospital on a semi-fulltime basis. He would know then what he would have to deal with when he did become a true doctor.

But there were other things that seemed more important to him at that moment. "Even when I was off, I'd still be on call, right?"

"If we felt that you were needed, yes, it's part of the agreement that you be readily available even when you're not scheduled."

"Which means that I couldn't just ignore a phone call, because it might be from you or Bobbie or anyone else."

Monica didn't understand what was going on, but she was answering the questions that he was giving her. "That's correct."

"This whole thing with Morgan… I could have been here a few minutes earlier."

"It might not have helped either way, Damian," Monica said softly. "You have to realize that. Doctor's can help save people, sometimes we can even pull a person back when there doesn't seem to be any sort of hope for them, but we can't always do it."

"I know," Damian's mind flashed back to his mother's final days. There was nothing that they could do. They were just waiting for it to take her away from him. He knew that the doctor's couldn't work miracles. Even when they claimed that it was a 'miracle' it really wasn't. "But I was away, with Maxie, when this was happening. Dad even tried to call me when he found out that I was the best shot that Morgan had at staying alive. I was too far away from the phone to hear it, Monica. Even when I could hear the phone, I thought about ignoring it, thinking that there wasn't anything that was so important that it could interrupt the time that I was having with Maxie… but it ended up being a matter of life and death, and I could have cost my baby brother his life. I still could be costing him his life."

"You can't feel guilty for just being alive and doing what you thought was the right thing. How were you supposed to know that Morgan was sick? There was no way that you could have foreseen this happening, that he would need your blood to make it through this procedure."

"But if I were an intern I would have to answer the phone all the time. I couldn't just ignore the call." It wasn't entirely true, he could ignore the call as long as it wasn't from someone who was at the hospital. But he would have to look and he would likely end up answering the phone anyway. "If I would have been an intern with you already, Monica… then I wouldn't have even got the impulse to ignore the phone call to begin with."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that… I want to do this. I need to do it. I need to start helping people, like I've wanted to do for the past seven years. I know that I'm sacrificing a lot of my spare time, that I'm going to work even harder because of my classes at the college… but I don't care. I don't want to have another thing like this happen, where someone that I love is in need of me and I don't think that it's important enough to answer the damned phone."

"You're sure about this?" Monica wondered. "Damian, right now your mind is… well, I don't know what you're going through right now, what possible state your mind could be in, but I don't want you to regret this decision. You can back out of the internship, but if you do the odds are that you won't get a second chance unless you have a good reason for backing out in the first place."

"I'm sure about it, Monica," he looked up at her. "Right now my mind is focused on doing the right thing, both for Morgan and for myself. I knew that I should have taken the offer right away, but I was scared. I'm still scared, but I have to deal with that fear and face it, running away, not doing this, it isn't what I need."

"I'm very happy with the decision that you've made."

"Thank you. But, please, do me a favor… right now everyone is busy with worrying about Morgan, like they should be. I know that they'll be happy for me, but they can find out later. I'll tell them once I know that everything is all right. Could you just keep this between us for right now?" The request was simple and concise. Diverting the attention from a baby in peril to some great offer that he had taken would be selfish. It might have been selfish to even talk about it while they were right there in front of Morgan, but it was seeing Morgan in peril that made Damian force himself to make up his mind.

"Of course," Monica knew that it wasn't the time to give happy news. It wouldn't be received the same way. She didn't want people to not realize how momentous the chance was. "I've got some patients that I need to check up on… my break's over. Sometimes I wish it could be longer, but my job is important. Goodbye, Damian."

"Bye, Monica."

Damian fixated his vision on the child once more. "I wish that you weren't going through this pain right now, Morgan. But in a way it helped me make a decision that's going to have a huge impact on the rest of my life. The only way thing that would make it even better is if you pulled through. Do it for me… do it for everyone who is waiting around for you to wake up and just be yourself again. We want to see you grow up, make mistakes, fall in love. Don't take that away from any of us, please."

Waiting Area, Hours Later-

Mike had long since been called and had dropped everything to be at the hospital. Courtney was also informed, but felt it better to stay with Jason and Michael. Her support would be given even if her physical being was not present. Dillon and Georgie had left at the behest of the adults. It wasn't because they weren't family, there was just nothing that they could do. Aside from Maxie, who was on a shift, everyone that was inside the lounge was blood related to Morgan in some way.

"They should have had answers by now," Sonny had been pacing in spurts. Often sitting down for a few minutes before the anxiety got the better of him and made him get up and walk around again. "The doctor hasn't even been here for over an hour."

"What's worse, Sonny?" Mike tried to calm his son down. He had never been any good at doing the task, but that didn't stop him from trying. "The doctor coming and telling you that nothing has changed once again, or the doctor coming and letting you know that something has changed?"

"Actually, I can answer the question myself," Doctor Jenkins had appeared. "I'm sorry that this has taken as long as it has, but as we had anticipated there was no estimate that could have been given as to when Morgan would react to the blood. However, he has… and we managed to do everything in time. Your son might not be able to be as active as he was before he got sick, but he'll regain his energy in a few days. He's going to be fine."

"Thank God," Carly felt the weight lifted from her being as she wrapped her arms around Sonny, the tears returning, but no longer tears of anguish and sorrow, they had become tears of sheer joy.

"We'll need to keep him here at least overnight, but in the morning, if everything checks out like we're almost certain it will, you can take him home."

"Can we see him?" Sonny asked, wanting to see the child that he knew was going to be fine, at least for now. He gave his silent thanks to Stone for doing what he had asked, knowing that his old friend had heard him.

"Of course, if you'll follow me."

"You two go right now," Mike said, standing next to Bobbie, "you're his parents, you deserve to see him first."

"Mama… can you call Michael and let him know everything is going to be all right?" Carly saw her mother nod and pull out her cell phone as she walked away.

When Carly and Sonny got to the room they saw Damian standing near Morgan, who was still in the environmentally safe area that he had been in just as a precaution. The young man walked to the side, giving them both the room that they needed. They were Morgan's parents, they deserved the chance to be alone with him.

Before he could leave, Carly grabbed his arm softly, the two looking at one another. Carly smiled and softly spoke, "Thank you…"

"Go be with Morgan right now, Carly, you don't need to thank me." Damian walked out the open door, watching through the window for a moment before walking away completely.


	58. Dire Questions

Note: We take this moment to mourn the loss of Tamara Braun as our beloved and or hated Carly Corinthos. For those that don't know, it is true, Tamara has decided that she does not wish to continue with the role and has opted to not renew her contract. In other, happier news, I got a Dillon scene. A good one!

Story-

Lounge Area-

"Yes, Jason," Bobbie thought that she wouldn't need to reiterate, especially when it came to Jason Morgan, but she also knew that sometimes the best news was the hardest news to actually accept. "Morgan's fighting off the infection as we speak. They're going to keep him here overnight just in case something comes up, but the doctor was very hopeful that he would make it through the night without any complications."

Maxie was thankful that Morgan was all right, just as thankful as anyone else. Damian's family had become a part of her family much in the same way that Dillon had. Besides, if Maxie's fantasy of staying with Damian for the rest of her life ever came true then Morgan would be her brother-in-law, but that didn't matter. What was really important was the fact that there was a little boy who was going to stay alive and live longer. Nobody wanted anything more than that.

"How are you holding up, Maxie?"

"Better," she smiled. "We're all doing better now that we know he's going to be okay."

Mike agreed wholeheartedly. "Just so you know… Carly didn't mean what she was saying earlier. When she's nervous she lashes out. And nothing makes a parent more nervous than seeing one of their children in pain."

"You're defending Carly?"

"She's my daughter-in-law, Maxie. We might not always see eye to eye, but I care about her and I care about her children. I just don't want you to hold what she said against her, I think she feels bad enough about it. Or she will when she finally gets around to thinking about what was said to both you and your little sister."

"I know that she was worried about Morgan, that she had every reason to be worried about her child, but that doesn't excuse her actions."

"Just drop it, Maxie. Please."

Both Mike and Maxie looked over to see Damian, who was standing a few feet away. Neither had been expecting him to leave Morgan's side so quickly.

Maxie moved away from the nurses' station and went to her boyfriend, hugging him tightly. "I was so worried about you. What you must have been going through while you were in there alone with Morgan. I'm just glad that you're both okay."

"Maxie…"

"Yeah?"

"You might want to let go… you're pressing a little too hard on the area where they stuck the needle in me, it's still pretty tender."

She blushed slightly as she pulled away. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Damian thought about the question. In some ways he was okay, in others he wasn't. But on the whole he was glad that he was with the people who he cared about. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Will you settle for holding hands?" Maxie wondered.

"I'll settle for holding hands."

Mike watched the two. He couldn't help but be amazed at how much they cared about each other. He hadn't even seen the two of them together when Damian first came around. Maxie was involved with that scummy bastard who ended up abusing her and then overdosing. It seemed like Damian was the best thing for Maxie, and Mike didn't think that it was so bad.

Bobbie was also happy that Maxie had gotten herself into a relationship that was worthy of the love that she had in her heart. She couldn't have picked a better person to be with her niece than her step-grandson. "Damian, everyone at the penthouses knows that Morgan made it through all right."

"Good. Thank you, Bobbie. How's Michael?"

"He finally fell asleep, according to Jason," she thought about that poor child. Michael had seen so much, been through things that certainly would have broken her if she were his age.

"Based on the smiles that are on all your faces, I'd assume that there was some good news to be heard?"

Bobbie knew that thick accent. She'd heard about Lois being back in town, but she had yet to actually see Lois since she arrived. It helped ease the mood, which was what they all needed at that time. "Lois!"

"Bobbie, I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your grandson. I can't even begin to imagine what you people are going through, but I can bet that Sonny and Carly are going bonkers right about now."

"They're doing better," Damian clutched Maxie's hand tighter. "How did you find out, Lois?"

"Alan thought that I should know that my best friend's baby boy was in the hospital, so he told me. He didn't say what was going on or how Morgan was, but I knew that Sonny needed all the support that he could get so I came right over."

"He'll be glad that you came," Mike hadn't been around to see the blossoming friendship that Sonny and Lois had when they were children, but he knew all about it. Sonny cared about Lois on a level that was different than anything else. Only the feelings that he had for Courtney were somewhat similar.

"I didn't come alone, Brookie insisted that she come along for some reason. She's downstairs at the gift shop looking for something to give Morgan."

"That's very kind of her," Damian remarked, not ignoring the sound that came out of Maxie's mouth. He knew that the two of them weren't the best of friends, or even friends at all.

"So what happened?" Lois inquired. "I mean I don't think you would all be here standing around doing nothing if things weren't okay…"

"Morgan needed my blood to help his immune system start running again, it took a few hours, but it worked."

"I need another favor from you, Damian…"

The crowd, now larger, heard Sonny's voice. They all looked at his face, making sure that it didn't give the slightest hint that something had gone wrong, that Morgan had relapsed into another sickness, one that couldn't be cured. Sonny didn't look like there was anything wrong, but Sonny was an expert at making the blank face, so it was up in the air.

"What is it, dad?" Damian asked. "And why are you here? I thought you'd be with Morgan for the rest of the night."

"I can't be with him right now," Sonny noted. "I've still got this cough, and I had to make sure that my visit with him was short so I didn't get him sick with something else while he finally got some fresh antibodies in his system. But I don't want to leave the hospital. Carly's going to stay with him for a little while longer. Bobbie… she's asking for you."

"Did she say what she needed?"

Sonny shook his head, "Just told me to tell you that she wanted to see you right away."

"Sonny…" Lois walked over and clutched his hand, "I came right when I heard. I'm so glad that Morgan's okay. I was praying the whole time we were driving from the Quartermaine Mansion."

"I'm glad you're here, Lois."

"Dad?" Damian didn't mind seeing the display that happened between his father and Lois, but Sonny said he needed something from him, and Damian still didn't know what.

"Oh, right," Sonny looked at the boy. "I need you to go home."

"What? Why?"

"Because one of us needs to be there with Michael right now, and you need to get some rest. I know how much of a drain giving all that blood to Morgan must have been."

"I'm fine…"

Sonny didn't want to hear the protests, "I almost lost one son today, I'm not going to let myself worry about another. Please, do this for me."

Damian knew that Sonny was just looking out for him, and he did appreciate the gesture that was being made. Sonny wasn't throwing him to the side, thinking that he was useless, Sonny was just trying to do something that he felt was the right thing. Who was Damian to argue? "Okay… but if you need me to come back…"

"I'll call. Do me a favor and answer your phone this time."

"Believe me, after today I'm never going to let the phone ring again…"

Maxie still felt guilty about her part in the ordeal, but knew that it was not the time to discuss such a thing. Instead, she merely kissed her boyfriend on the cheek, "I'll check up on you in a few hours, make sure you're doing okay. Remember, drink plenty of fluids and if you take a shower or a bath don't stay in too long."

"It's so cute that you're looking out for me," he brushed away some of her hair with his index finger. "Love you."

"Love you, too."

As Damian walked away, Sonny grabbed his arm. "I don't know how I'm ever going to repay you."

Damian embraced his father for a moment, "Morgan's my brother, dad. You don't need to pay me for caring about a member of my family." He let go and gave a shallow wave to the people around him before walking into the nearest open elevator.

Children's Wing-

Carly was still crying. Tears of joy, tears of pain. Somehow they managed to mix together. She was happy that her boy was alive, yet saddened that it had gotten to the point that it did. Her mind was going to explode from everything that it was going through. People weren't meant to go through so much pain. She knew that. Yet somehow it always seemed to be that she was the one who went through the motions and ended up surviving.

Bobbie walked in and saw her grandson in the sterile protection box that he was placed in. "Thankfully, he's too young to remember any of this."

"But we'll remember…"

"All we have to do is keep on telling ourselves that he made it out alive, Carly. We can't do anything more than that. Nor should we. Things like this happen all the time, we need to focus on the good things that happened, not the bad."

"I know, mom."

Bobbie sat down in the chair that was next to Carly, "You said that you needed me for something?"

"I need to know something… I thought I didn't need to know, but today showed me that I really can't go without at least having some idea of it."

Bobbie wondered what Carly meant. Her daughter's mind was foreign to her, something that was impossible to predict. "Carly… just ask me…"

Wiping away the tears in her eyes, Carly's gaze wandered from Morgan over to her mother, "I need to know who my father is."


	59. The Color Green

Journeylove- There's a bit of that Brook trouble hinted at below. Nothing drastic, just the planting of seeds. Yes, seeds.

Story-

Bobbie had never really discussed the parenting of Carly with her directly. How could she? Bobbie was essentially little more than a whore, a call girl that worked for money because she felt that it was the only thing that she could ever do with her life. Carly asking that question brought back the memories that Bobbie would have much rather have forgotten.

"I know how hard this is for you, mom, but please…"

"Carly, you're not thinking straight. You don't need to know who your father is."

"Yes, I do," she grabbed her mother's wrist. "Mom, this made me think about things… things that I never thought about before."

"You're worrying too much right now. Morgan was sick and you're worried that something else will happen to him, or to Michael… or just anyone else that you care about. Carly, everything is going to be fine."

"You don't know that!" Carly gave a harsh whisper, trying not to upset Morgan. She knew that he would pick up on the vibes that were being given around him. "Can we talk outside, please? From the window so I can watch him. I just don't want him to hear any of this."

"There's nothing to talk about," Bobbie's eyes were closed. The years that she had spent trying to forget all the men that she had bedded simply to make a buck were coming back. She was angry at Carly for making her remember. Bobbie knew that she wouldn't go back to that life, but it didn't mean that she wanted to even remember it.

"Mom, please… hear me out at least?" Carly was desperate. Her mother was the only person who could help her and if Bobbie didn't want to then Carly didn't know if she could ever truly trust her mother again. This wasn't as simple as Bobbie wanted to make it out. Carly had her father's blood type, so did Michael. What if the same thing happened to Michael that happened to Morgan? Or worse?

"All right… but I'm telling you right now that you're not thinking properly." Bobbie got out of the chair and followed her daughter out of the room.

Carly watched Morgan from the window as she intended, but her attentions were completely focused on her mother. "I know that you don't like how I was conceived, mom. I know that you regret doing what you did, giving me up, not raising me yourself."

"So then why do you want to make me remember all those regrets, Carly? I thought we were passed the point where we were trying to hurt one another."

"I'm not trying to hurt you!" Carly defended her motives. "I'm trying to help my children and myself."

"How? By bringing a man in who might not even want anything to do with you or your children? Carly, what if you find your father and he doesn't care? He doesn't accept you as his daughter? What if that happens? It will break your heart. You saw what it did to Sonny when Damian came around."

"They managed to make it through the tough times, mom," Carly could remember vividly everything that happened between her husband and step-son. "I know that my father would do the same thing. He might be hesitant at first, but he would accept me… I just know it."

"No, you don't… you're trying to think about the best case scenario, which is what you should be thinking about anyway. You don't need to know who your father is."

"Yes, I do," Carly wasn't going to back down, not from this. "Mom, what if something else happens to Morgan? Or Michael? Sonny's family can't help Michael in any way because they're not his blood."

"The Quatermaine's practically own the hospital, Carly. If something happened to Michael don't you think that they would come here running to help him out? And even if they couldn't, Lucky and Lulu are here, too. Michael has all the support he needs."

"Mom," Carly wiped away some of her tears. "I'm afraid for my children now. This made me realize so much that I had been ignoring. I know that the odds are small, but they are there, that's why I can't drop this. I need you to help me find out who my father is. It's that simple."

"It's not simple," Bobbie shook her head. "Carly, your father could literally be one of dozens of men."

"So I'll find each of those men and get tested…"

"You can't do that! It's impossible."

"No, it isn't. Mom, you know how rich I am. Sonny has enough money to test half the population in the United States, I know you didn't sleep around with that many people…"

"Well thank you for downsizing my clientele, Carly. It really helps to know that you have enough respect for me to assume I didn't sleep with half of the American population."

"That's not what I meant!" It came out wrong, everything was coming out wrong. Carly couldn't help it. "Mom, it doesn't matter how many guys there were. You just need to tell me who they are."

"I can't even remember who they are! That was almost thirty years ago. Carly… please… I can't."

"You mean you won't."

"If that's how you think about the situation then I can't stop you," Bobbie lowered her head. "I wish you could believe me, Carly. I really wish you could."

"So do I." She walked to the doorway, "If you can't help me then there's no reason for you to be here."

"My grandson is in that room, that is enough reason for me to be here."

"You saw him, you know he's going to be all right. You can check up on him later… right now, right now I just need to be away from you."

"Carly…"

"Please, mom, before we both start saying even more things that we're going to regret." She still loved her mother, but that didn't mean she was entirely happy with Bobbie. Far from it, she'd never been more irate with her mother than at that very moment. How could Bobbie, in her right mind, even think about sacrificing the safety of her grandchildren? Carly would move heaven and earth to make sure that they were okay. Why couldn't her mother do the same thing?

Bobbie waited a moment to see if Carly was being serious, and then she knew that her daughter was. Carly wanted to know the answers to the questions that she couldn't answer, and Carly held it against Bobbie for being unable to give her what she wanted. It wasn't Bobbie's fault. Why couldn't Carly understand that? At the same time, why couldn't Bobbie comply? There was some level of her that was saying that Carly was right. She needed to know who her father was, for Michael, for Morgan, quite possibly for herself. Bobbie had ideas of who the man was. There was only a certain period of time that she could have gotten pregnant with Carly, but that still had a window, one she wanted to remain closed.

Carly watched her mother walk away out of the corner of her eye. She placed her hand on the container, looking down at Morgan. "I know you're too little to understand all of this, Morgan. And if I scared you with the way I was talking to grandma I really am sorry. But mommy needs to do this for herself, and for your brother and quite possibly for you. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring but if it means that I have to depend on my parents then I need to know who they both are."

Lounge-

Brook Lynn walked out of the elevator. She'd seen Morgan… what, maybe twice? That didn't exactly equate to easy pickings when it came to getting a gift. But how could one go wrong with balloons? Wasn't like the baby was old enough to really appreciate the sentiment.

She saw her mother and Sonny talking in the lounge. Not wanting to disturb them, she looked around for a friendly face. Instead, all she got was Maxie, who was doing some paperwork. "You work here, too?"

Maxie tried to hide her scowl. She was on the clock, had to be decent to the girl that she didn't much care for. How could they not see it? She was trying to steal Damian. She could see it. "Is that surprising?"

"Kind of…"

"Why?"

"Because you seem more like the person who would rather, I don't know, hang out with people than be here helping people that you don't know. I mean, it's really cool that you're here, makes me give you more credit."

"When I need credit for you, I'll ask for it."

"Look," Brook knew well and good the whole cold shoulder thing. How many times had she utilized that in her life? "I don't know why you don't like me, and I really don't care, but you don't have to keep on giving me the cold stare of death every time I come around."

"You could just stop coming around…"

"See, that's kind of hard, since I like spending time with your sister and Dillon's my uncle."

"They're not here right now, you can go be with them."

"How stubborn are you?"

Maxie groaned, "Brook, is there something that you actually need, because if there isn't I've got things that I need to take care of. I was worried about Morgan so I was doing a slower job than I normally would be, but now that I know he's going to be all right I also know that I can get back to work."

"I brought these for him," Brook showed Maxie the balloons. "I hope he likes them. I was going to ask Damian for some help, but he's not here…"

"He went home. He's really tired right now. Damian had to give Morgan his blood so that Morgan would get better."

"He gave him his blood? That's so cool."

"Damian loves his baby brother, he'd do anything for Morgan, and for Michael."

"Sometimes I wish I had grown up around here, you know? Like, Kristina's my little sister, but I don't know her very well. I still care about her and would do the same thing that Damian did for Morgan, but I don't know… the fact that he did it, it shows how big his heart is."

"The balloons are fine. If you want, I'll deliver them when I go on my rounds. I'm stopping by the wing to check on Morgan myself."

"Sure," Brook handed them over. "Maxie, are you sure that we can't just bury the hatchet? Try and be friends? Everyone else in your close circle of friends and family seems to like me… and I like them, but the two of us, we just don't get along. I want us to be friends."

"I guess we could try," Maxie didn't like being a vindictive person. It reminded her too much of the way that she used to be. Old habits died hard and came back too easily. "But I won't make any promises."

"Didn't think you would, but I'll take you up on that offer. See you around. And do me a small favor, if my ma asks about me, just tell her that I went to get something to eat over at that Kelly's place."

"Can do…"

Mike watched the two of them. When Brook was safely away, he came up to Maxie. "Green isn't your color."

"What do you mean?"

"Maxie, you're not very good at hiding your feelings. You don't like that girl at all, and you're jealous about something. Do you think she's prettier than you?"

"She wants to take him away from me, Mike."

"Who? Damian? No she doesn't… she doesn't even know him that well. She's been in town for, what, four days maybe? Maxie… you're worried about something that you don't need to worry about. Damian is in love with you. That's not going to change."

"She just has so much in common with him," Maxie heard the way they were talking about music. She didn't know anything about it, beside the fact that she liked music. "When I think about me and him… I don't see what brought us together."

"The fact that you care about him and he cares about you. Maxie, people don't come together because they have similar interests. At least not all the time. Love isn't easy to categorize, to typecast. You've got something special with him, you shouldn't throw it away because you're doubting yourself. He wouldn't like that."

Maxie thought about Mike's words. He was telling the truth. Or at least she wanted to believe that he was. She hoped she wasn't wrong and that he wasn't wrong.


	60. Subbing Is Good Enough

Journeylove- Funny that you should think that… considering that the proposed couple in question has had all but… two scenes together? I mean, more power to you, and if there is going to be a Damian/Brook relationship, I'll be building it up. But, really now, do you think that he would betray his first love? Okay, fine, Dillon did (not in this story, since Sage never came around… but he did in real continuity), but they're hardly the same person. What I have in mind will likely be filled with plenty of possibilities, and maybe, just maybe, something will happen. No promises. Other than it should be fun to watch.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

"Sometimes I wonder…"

Jason, who was sitting on the couch trying to relax after getting the news that Morgan was going to be all right turned his distinctive blue eyes onto his wife. "About what?"

"About how Carly and Sonny can handle everything that happens to their children," she was including Damian in the mix because he was Sonny's child and even though she tried to hide it Carly did worry about him, too. "I mean, look at me. I'm pacing around the room completely nervous even though I know that he's going to be all right, and I'm not even his parent."

"You love Morgan just as much as they do," Jason pointed out. "The same goes for Michael and for Damian as well. The fact that you're so nervous shows just how much you care about that boy. You're a good influence on him, on all of them." Jason knew that she was a much better influence on the boys than he could ever be, even though he loved them just as much, Jason would much rather they be like Courtney as opposed to anybody else.

"But I just can't help but wonder about what Sonny and Carly must be going through. They almost lost Morgan when he was a baby, or they though they might have. How many times did we worry that Carly was gone when Ric had her?"

"We shouldn't worry about that anymore," Jason didn't want to remember, but he could never forget. He believed Michael when Michael told him that Ric had his mother, but he didn't do enough. None of them did. "It's the past, let's leave it there."

"I don't know how I would be able to handle something like this." Courtney said softly. "You know, if it happened to one of our children. If I was even able to have children."

"Come here," Jason knew that it was having a very hard toll on Courtney, one that only added to the anguish that she would never let go. She still blamed herself for losing their unborn child, despite it not being her fault. It was Alcazar's fault. The only regret that Jason had was that he didn't get to kill Alcazar. It would have made him feel like his vengeance had been served, and Damian wouldn't be haunted by the fact that he killed a man.

"I shouldn't be thinking about things like this right now, I know that," Courtney sat next to Jason, resting her head on his shoulder, feeling the comfort that came when he wrapped his arm around her. "But how can I not? I'm around these boys all the time… maybe it's a curse or something. You think we would have had a boy?"

"I would have been happy with whatever we had," Jason didn't want to think about it, although he did have his heart set on having a little girl.

"I just wanted the baby to have your eyes… that's all I wanted."

"It's funny," he looked down at her, two fingers running through her silky blond hair, "all I wanted was our child to have your eyes as well."

"Just tell me that everything is going to be okay, Jason," Courtney begged. "Tell me that I can still be happy…"

"You'll find other ways to be happy, Courtney. We both will. Even if we never have children ourselves we'll still be involved in their lives. We'll watch them grow up and have children of their own and we'll help them be parents just like we help Sonny and Carly. Just because we can't nurture our own children doesn't mean we have to stop completely."

Courtney was thankful to have Jason in her life. She couldn't imagine living life with anyone else. Her past relationships, it was all leading up to the true love of her life. "You're right…"

"Besides, we make out better in the end. We're just the Aunt and Uncle, we don't have to clean up the messes…"

Courtney gave a peculiar stare at her husband, "Did I just hear Jason Morgan make a joke?"

"That boy must be rubbing off on me," Jason gave his soft smile while he thought of Dillon. To think that he was so against the idea of the teenager living with them initially, and now he was almost grateful for it. Almost.

"Just don't try and imitate his hair."

"I don't think I'd let him influence me that much…"

The door opened as Damian walked in. He'd taken longer than he would have normally taken getting from the hospital to the penthouse, presumably because he was still thinking about everything that had happened to him. Two pairs of blue eyes were staring directly at him, which only made him feel uncomfortable. "Did I… interrupt something?"

"No," Courtney got off the couch and hugged her nephew. "You have no idea how glad I am that you're with us…"

"I'm glad that I'm here, too. I just wish that I wasn't needed for something that could have been… well… we all know how it could have turned out." Thinking it was bad enough, he didn't want to say it. Saying it only made it seem all the more likely.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked.

"Yeah…" he couldn't help but still feel uncomfortable around Jason, especially after what happened at Christmas. Jason was impossible to read more often than not, how was Damian to know that Jason really wasn't angry at him, even if Courtney said he wasn't. "I'm fine… dad asked me to come home because he wanted one of us here in case Michael had questions."

"He had plenty of them," Jason remarked. "I didn't have the answers… for once he came to me and I couldn't tell him something that would make the problem go away or make him feel better about himself." In some small way, Jason looked at himself as a failure to Michael.

"He knows," Damian sat down in the chair across from Jason. "Michael's a smart kid, he's certainly smart enough to realize that there are times when people don't have the answers that he wants. He doesn't think that you specifically don't know about them… he just knows that we can't always give him answers."

"I don't think that this is something that we should be talking to Michael about anyway," Courtney didn't want him to understand things that were too emotionally scarring for a boy his age. "I don't even want to think about it, and I'm just a little older than Michael."

"He has a right to know what happened. Morgan's as much a part of him as he is everyone else in this family. I agree that getting into the technicalities of the situation isn't going to be very smart, but I don't think we should keep him in the dark. I'll just tell him that Morgan was sick and he needed something that I had to give him and it made him better. It answers all the questions that he probably has and answers them in most simple way possible." Was he cutting his little brother a little short? Yes, but Damian knew that Courtney was right, just like he was right. Michael needed to deal with concepts that he could understand, not be bogged down with a bunch of details that he couldn't comprehend.

Courtney listened and, while having her reservations, could see that Damian was trying to keep Michael informed, but not overly informed to the point that it would only hurt the boy. "That seems like a good idea."

"Where is he?" Damian asked. "I'm not going to tell him right now… I'll wait for him to come to me, but… how is he doing otherwise?"

"He finally knocked himself out about an hour ago," Courtney said as she poured a glass of water. "I think everything just eventually drained him. Here," she handed the glass over to Damian, "you need to keep on drinking fluids right now."

"Thanks," he took the glass and took a drink. He was parched, and tired. He could use a nap himself. "I don't even know if he wants to talk to me again… he might still be mad."

"He's not," Jason shook his head.

"You didn't talk to him, did you?"

"No. He came to the conclusion that being angry at you and Sonny for doing something so small wasn't worth it. He talked to Sonny on the phone when he called. I think seeing what kind of danger Morgan was in made Michael realize how important his family was…"

"I see," Damian put the glass on the floor. "I wish it didn't take something so dire to make him realize that… but I shouldn't be picky. I just want him to be the old Michael again. I remember a few times when I was mad at my mom, or my grandparents, and I would do the same thing to them that Michael was doing to me and dad… I guess I never knew how much it hurt them until now."

"We were all like that as kids," Courtney said sympathetically. "It's part of what we do. We hold grudges for the stupidest reasons. I remember I didn't talk to my mom for days after she threw out one of my stuffed animals, even though it was already ripped apart and was probably more of a health hazard than anything else. I loved that thing, I couldn't believe she would do something like that."

He laughed at Courtney's story, picturing a little girl protesting. It was an amusing vision. "I'm going to catch a quick nap… unless the two of you want to leave?"

"You get your rest, you deserve it," Courtney knew how much he had been through. It was a miracle that he had managed to stay sane.

"Wake me up if something happens," he knew that they would. If Morgan had a relapse he was the only one who could give him the blood that he needed. "Even if it's something simple like Morgan started laughing… I don't care."

"We will," Jason watched as the boy walked over to his room, shutting the door.

Inside his room, Damian tossed his jacket off, throwing it on the floor. He sat on his bed as he untied his shoes, just the soft padding of the bed was more than enough to make him want to rest even more. With his shoes off his feet, he placed his head on the pillow, the picture of his mother, the one that he had kept since she died, directly in his eyesight.

Reaching over, he grabbed the picture and ran his fingers over her face. He'd never be able to feel her face again, or feel her hand on his cheek the way that she used to do it when she was alive. "I saved someone, mom. I couldn't do anything for you, but I could do something for Morgan… and I did. You're proud of me, right?" He put the picture back before resting his eyes, knowing intuitively that she was proud of him.

Outside, Courtney stared at the closed door, as if it held the answers to all the secrets of the universe. Maybe it did. Damian had a lot of books in his room that talked about things she couldn't even begin to understand. "We need to watch him…"

"I know," Jason agreed. "I didn't hear him lock the door. I'll check up on him in a little while."

"He's still uneasy about talking with you, you know."

"I can't help that," Jason said blankly. "I told him that I wasn't angry at him for doing what he did on Christmas Eve, but I was disappointed and I still am. He's a smart kid, and I know that his heart was in the right place… he'll see that he doesn't need to feel guilty about it soon."

"Maybe there was something else…"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't really know for sure," Courtney couldn't put her finger on it. "It was like there was something else that was bugging him. Something that didn't have to do with Morgan or Michael or you. Do you think he and Maxie are going through a tough time?"

"I think that we should let him come to us if he thinks that he needs to," Jason's advice was often that which was followed. Hopefully it would be again. "Besides, you're probably looking into it too much. I didn't see anything. He's been through a lot and giving blood, especially the amount that he did, can drain a person fast."

"You're right, I'm just being overprotective. That's me… the overprotective aunt."

"It's good that you're so protective of them, Courtney. It shows how much you care."

"I just can't help but be a little amazed at the fact that, if things had been different… if he had been here from the beginning. If Sonny had known about him."

"Don't dwell on things that can't be changed. You have to believe that these things happened for a reason. If he would have had Sonny in his life then he wouldn't have grown up to be as strong and secure as he is. Maybe he would have had a better childhood, but he might not have become a better person."

"I'm going to check up on Michael," she said as she started walking up the stairs as softly as she could so she didn't wake him up.

Peering through the door into the child's room, she saw Michael, his blanket partly thrown off of his body. She smiled lightly as she walked into the room, nearly tiptoeing and making sure she didn't stop on a toy. When she got to his bedside she pulled the blanket up to him and stood there for a moment. Jason was right, even if she never got to be a mother on her own she could help Sonny and Carly, and it would be enough.


	61. Ever The Best Friend

WhiteCamellia- No, sorry, no Sonny/Carly interaction for another few chapters. But you'll get Carly and Courtney, is that good enough for you? I hope so.

Story-

Children's Wing, General Hospital, Late Evening-

"Hey…"

Carly knew the voice before she looked. She'd been with Morgan for hours, and she had no intention of leaving her baby's side any time soon. But hearing her best friend's voice just made her feel like something was going right. "You didn't need to come…"

"Why would you say something like that, Carly?" Courtney walked into the room. "Of course I needed to come. Michael's all right now. Damian and Jason are still over there with him."

"Did he have a lot of questions?"

"He's a nine year old boy, Carly, what do you think?"

"You know… when I was younger, before I had Michael, I used to see people with their kids that were around his age and they would always be asking questions and it would get so annoying that I would think 'why don't those people just tell the kid to shut up.' And then I would promise myself that when I became a mother I would let my children know that there were some things that just couldn't be answered." She laughed softly. "But look at me now, Courtney… look at me. I'm the mother of a kid who never stops asking questions, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so proud of Michael for wanting to know so much, even when it's something that he might not be able to understand he just wants to have some sort of idea as to what is going on."

"You raised a smart kid, Carly…"

"I wanted Morgan to be like him. I wanted Morgan to be the type of kid that would get the good grades on tests, that would make me proud… and I almost lost that today." The tears began to well up in her eyes again. She'd spent so much time in the past few hours just continually crying, like there was nothing else that she could do.

Courtney put the cups of coffee that she had purchased for both of them from the cafeteria on the counter and gently embraced her dearest friend and sister-in-law. A lot of times she knew that people with their particular relation were hardly ever friends, they were almost always at each others throats. But Courtney had gotten lucky. She loved Carly dearly, and cared a great deal about Emily as well. She and Emily would never be as close as she and Carly, but they got along. Courtney was blessed to have such strong relationships with the people around her, and while she didn't think about it very often, they were also blessed for having her in their lives.

"I keep telling myself… what if he hadn't have been here? What if I had actually pushed him away to the point where he didn't even care what happened to his baby brother?" She wiped her nose with a tissue paper. "I was so horrible to him for such a long time… he had every reason to hate me, to use this against me… but he didn't."

"He's not that kind of person, Carly. Even if he hated you, hated Sonny, hated everyone, deep down he would have known that doing what he did was the right thing to do. If nothing else he would have remembered what his mother told him."

"I know, but I spent so long trying to get everyone to believe that he was out to hurt us… that he was out to take away from my family. He didn't do that, Courtney. He just enhanced it. Michael and Sonny are so happy with him around… God, how could I have been so stupid?"

"You were worried," Courtney could see that Carly was having an inner crisis. Something that usually didn't turn out very well for her. "We all were when he first got here, remember? None of us were thinking that he was going to be the person that he turned out to be. We were all worried that he was going to do something that would end up hurting us."

"You didn't take action, though." Quickly realizing that she had said too much, Carly tried to cover her past. "You never tried to make him feel unwelcome. Every day I would say something that I hoped would shove him out the door. You know that period of time where he moved out the first time? One of the happiest times of my life… at least when it happened."

"Do you think he hates you for everything that you did?" Courtney asked, hoping that the vibes she was getting would lead her in the right direction. "Because if you do…"

"I don't," Carly cut Courtney off before she could say anything else. "Believe me, Courtney… we've talked about this. I thought I was at peace with everything that I had done, but after today… I can never make it up to him."

"I don't think you need to make it up to Damian, Carly. He wasn't exactly looking to be your favorite person when he first came around. Remember? You fought him just as hard as he fought you. I'm sure he regrets some of the things that he did, some of the things he said."

"Still… my son didn't save his life."

"Maybe someday Morgan will," Courtney didn't want to sound like she was hoping that something would happen to Damian that would require a part of Morgan, because she didn't want anything to happen to either of them, or Michael, or anyone else that she cared about. But she had quickly learned that, in the life that they led, hope wasn't enough to keep people from being hurt.

"You know what else I keep on thinking about? The doctor… he was saying that it was best for Morgan to get the blood from a relative that had the same type. Since I wasn't a match I knew there was nothing I could do, but if it happened with Michael… there's a part of my life that's missing, Courtney. I need to get that part back."

"What are you talking about?"

Carly finally stopped crying, the momentary relief and need to unload herself on one of the few people who she felt comfortable being so vulnerable around having passed. "I need to find my biological father."

Courtney's eyes grew wide. Carly had rarely mentioned ever going and finding the man that helped with her creation. Courtney wasn't around when Carly came to Port Charles, but she had heard the stories. Carly wanted to destroy Bobbie's life. "Are you sure about that?"

"I need to find him," Carly nodded her head. "Because I know that if something happens to Michael, or to me, or to Morgan, of even if I have another child… I need to know that there's another person, another family, that I can look to for help when I need it."

"Carly, the odds of that happening…"

"They're there, Courtney," Carly said firmly. "I don't care if they're a percent of a percent of a percent, but they are there. And when it comes to my children, I can't take even the smallest chance that they're going to leave me. I don't want to take that chance."

"Have you spoken to Bobbie about this?"

Carly's mind flashed back to the conversation that they had in the same room only hours before. She still vividly recalled the pain in her mother's eyes, as if she felt she was being betrayed by her daughter. "Yeah, I talked to my mom about this… she doesn't want to help me. You know what, I don't need her help. Not really. I don't know what I have to do, Courtney, but I've got more than enough money to do whatever it takes to get the information that I need."

"Carly, you're not thinking clearly…"

"You know, I'm so sick of people telling me that I'm not thinking clearly!" Carly snapped, seeing Courtney take a few steps back. Carly took a few moments to let the anger subside. "Sorry, I know that you didn't deserve that. You and Bobbie are both so intent on telling me that I'm not thinking about this properly, when I know that I am. How can I take a risk like this, Courtney?"

"Have you thought about what could happen?" Courtney's own mind was already thinking about what could have gone wrong with the plan. "What if you find this man and he doesn't care?"

"Sonny and Damian managed to make it work, and they're about as opposite as one another as possible."

"Yes, but Sonny and Damian aren't the same as you and whoever your father is. Carly, I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Then help me with this… because if I don't find the man who is my biological father I will be hurt."

"He can still hurt you, though." Courtney walked Carly over to the chair and sat her down. "What if he rejects you? It's different from what Sonny and Damian went through because even when Damian gave up on Sonny, Sonny never gave up on him. Parents aren't supposed to not care about their children, even when their children don't care about them, but this man, whoever he is, he doesn't necessarily have to think like that. You could just be a part of his past that he would rather forget. I don't mean for it to sound like you're not worth his love because I know that you are, but I'm just trying to tell you what you could be facing."

"I'll make him do what I need to," Carly had thought of the possibilities, but she knew that she had options.

"You're going to strong arm your father into being a part of your life? How can you build a relationship with him…"

"I never said I wanted a relationship with my father, Courtney. I just want to know who he is and know that if I need him for something, like blood, an organ or maybe some bone marrow, I can depend on him. This happened to my family before… Lulu was dying and nobody else could help her get better until Laura's other son came around. I don't want anything I go through to be like that."

"Carly…"

"Look," Carly grabbed Courtney's hand, "I know that I can go to Jase and he'll help me with this because he helps me whenever I need him… but I don't want to be at odds with you. Are you going to help me?"

Courtney was quiet, but she knew that Carly was telling the truth. Jason would do whatever it took to help Carly, and she couldn't do anything about it. If she tried to move Jason away from Carly then she would lose her friendship with her best friend. "I'll do what I can… but you have to know that I'm not completely behind this idea of yours."

"Just don't try and stop me," Carly requested.

"Have you told Sonny about this?"

She shook her head, "I haven't really seen Sonny since he left the room. Since he's sick right now he shouldn't be around Morgan while he's recovering. Did you see him in the lounge?"

"Yeah."

"Let me tell him…"

"Of course," Courtney reached over and grabbed the coffee. "I wouldn't dream of doing something like that. This is your problem, Carly. You need to be the one to address this to your family."

"Just so you know… I really have thought about this. I've been doing almost nothing else but thinking about this… and about Damian, but mostly about what steps I needed to take in order to make sure that something like this never happened to my family again."

"That's good to hear."

"And I'm not going to make any sort of plans," Carly added. "I just want to get all the facts that I can before I do anything. But if my mom isn't going to help me out then I'm going to need another way of looking at this."

"I can't believe you're doing this…"

"I thought that I wouldn't need my father in my life, even told myself that there was no room for him… but I found it."

"What if he's dead?"

"He still has family… I hope. Maybe he had another child, or an entire family. I could have half brothers and sisters that I've never met. Maybe some of them are in Port Charles… you never know."

"But think about your mother. Her past… everything that she's done. She's not proud of the person that she was and you're just trying to throw that all back in her face."

"I know," Carly was regretful for the steps that she had to take, but she knew that there was no choice. "If there was any other way for me to do this, Courtney, you know I would, but I don't have many options. Bobbie needs to help me with this… and if she won't then I don't know what I'm going to do."


	62. December 30th

Note: Sorry about yesterday. Net was down all day. Thankfully it came back today, right? I'm quite happy.

Story-

Corinthos Household, Morning-

If it weren't for the fact that giving blood was such an emotionally and physically draining task, Damian probably would have gotten no sleep the night before. He struggled to stay up, wondering if he fell asleep that they would call again and he would be too induced in his slumber to wake up. He'd almost missed the chance to save Morgan once, he sincerely doubted that fate would shine upon him a second time if the chance occurred. But even the most steadfast of determination could not quell the Sandman, who claimed the young man almost as quickly as he closed his eyes.

But that was the night before. The first thing Damian did when his eyes opened up the next morning was look at the cell phone that was placed mere inches away from his ear. The worry that was built up from wonderment ended up being entirely unjustified. He missed no calls.

Sitting up, Damian once more found his eyes directed toward the vision of his mother, her likeness, her beauty, forever captured in a picture. How could he not think of her? Did she help him? When he needed everything that he could cling on in an effort to hopefully turn the tide of mortality against Morgan, did she heed his beckon? "Mom…" his voice was hoarse, breathless as the word echoed softly out of his mouth.

He knew that he was still dressed in the clothes that he had left the house in the day before, and he didn't care. He'd shower, briefly per instructions and procedures, and change later. There were things more important than hygiene and looking good. Even Sonny Corinthos, who constantly topped the Herald's best dressed list, would concede that fact. Sonny was probably still in the same clothes, would people think less of him? Of course not.

The door to his room opened as he poked his head out. It was odd, somehow being ostracized from the rooms upstairs, yet fitting. He was a member of the family, but there was always that distance. He didn't mind, it made getting out of the house easier if he didn't have to run down the stairs, and midnight snacks were also quick within reach.

Although he did not initially feel the penetrating gaze of Jason Morgan's eyes, it was there. Jason had stayed the whole night, not at the request of anyone, simply because he felt that it was his duty to make sure that those members of his family that were inside Sonny's house were kept safe or had someone to talk with. Courtney might have stayed at the hospital with Carly, or maybe she went back to their own penthouse. Whatever the case, Jason wasn't going to leave unless something came up.

"How are you feeling?" Jason asked, genuinely concerned. He never wanted any harm to befall Damian, no matter what the boy did.

"Physically? Fine…"

"I know that giving blood can take a big toll on a person. I don't usually give blood, but I've lost plenty in my time…"

"I don't doubt that."

"Do you need something?"

"No…" whatever he needed was not something that anyone could provide, not his father, not Jason, not even Maxie. "Actually… there is something that you can do for me…"

"What is it?"

"Stay with Michael. I mean, if you can't… that's fine. I just don't want him to be alone…"

"You don't need to go back to the hospital, Damian. Nobody has called, and they would call if something was wrong."

"I'm glad that he's doing okay, Uncle Jason, but that's not it… I might stop by later, if he's not already back here by then… but I have something that I need to take care of, alone."

"Sonny's going to ask questions if you're not here," Jason knew his best friend well enough to hear Sonny's voice, the exact way that he would wonder about the whereabouts to his son. "Right now his mind isn't in the best of places. If I tell him that you're somewhere, but I don't even know where, he's going to worry."

"Just tell him that I said I needed to do something on my own," the response was simple. "It's not dangerous, I promise… I'll be fine."

"The fact that you say that only makes me wonder more, and he's going to take it even worse than me…"

"I can't tell you," Damian hated the need to be so secretive, but it was something that was entirely private. His burden to bear, nobody else needed to have the weight on their shoulders just to help him. "Look, I know that you have no reason to trust me, but I'm begging you to do this for me. It's really important that I just have some time to myself… I'm not asking for a miracle, I'm just asking for you to do this one thing for me."

"If Sonny gets worried, you know that you can't hide from him, especially if you're in Port Charles… and I'm not going to try and stop him from looking for you. Even if I wanted to try I wouldn't be able to do it. When Sonny worries about his children… that's it."

"But you'll stay here… and tell dad that I said I would be fine?"

It was easy to see that the boy wanted whatever it was that he was searching for, maybe he didn't even know. Jason knew full well about having things that only he could deal with himself. Everyone had that… who was he to rob another person of the right to figure things out for themselves? "Yeah… I'll stick around."

"Thank you."

Before another word could be spoken by either party, they heard Michael running down the stairs into the living room. He saw his brother and for the first time in many days it was easy to see that Michael was happy to see that Damian was there. "I thought I heard your voice… it was why I came down here."

Although there was a shared look between Damian and Jason as to what they were talking about before Michael intervened, the look was all that was exchanged. As he had done many times in the past for the sake of his younger brother, Damian kept his worries inside, putting on a smile that was mixed with both sincerity and deceit. "I would have come to tell you that I was home, but Uncle Jason and Aunt Courtney said you were asleep, I didn't want to wake you up."

"I wouldn't have minded…"

"Well I'm sure Uncle Jason would have… because then he would have needed to try and get you to go back to sleep at one in the morning. It was better that you slept through the whole thing, Michael."

"I was scared…"

"We all were, buddy," Jason knew how sensitive Michael was. Everyone did. They all did their best to keep him from seeing the truths of the world, of his life, but Jason believed that he did the most work out of everyone else, and it wasn't something that most people would have argued with. "But your parents didn't call at all last night to tell us that anything had changed for the worse, so that means that Morgan's getting better."

"Because of you, right?" Michael looked directly at Damian.

"Not entirely," Damian replied. "Michael… I did something that helped Morgan get better, but Morgan's the one who did most of the work. We've got a strong baby brother who knows how much we all love him and he doesn't want to lose us anytime soon."

"But you helped, I know it… you're not even a doctor yet and you're already saving lives."

Damian grinned. It was a nice compliment. One that only a child could give. "Why don't I make you something to eat?"

"I've never seen you cook before…"

"You also never saw me play the piano until dad bought me one, just because you haven't seen me do something doesn't mean I can't do it."

"Are you a good cook, like daddy?"

"I'm not like dad, no… but I'm better than Carly or Uncle Jason."

Jason didn't mind his cooking skills being the subject of scorn, it was the truth. He couldn't cook at all. Microwavable goods were his friend. However, there was one cardinal rule in the Corinthos household, and Jason felt the need to express it. "Sonny's not going to like it if you mess up his kitchen…"

"Right now do you think dad would even notice something in the kitchen after everything that's gone on?" The argument was valid. If Sonny cared that much about his cooking ware, then it would shock everyone. "Besides, I'm not lying… I can make some food… I'll prove it to you."

"You're not going to just pour some cereal in a bowl like mommy does, are you?" Michael didn't want his dreams of a homemade breakfast from someone other than his father dashed.

"I can promise you that cereal won't be a part of this menu, come on…"

Although he had been in the kitchen many times in the few months that he had been living in the house, he'd never so much as touched the pots and pans. Various plates and bowls, yes, but he was going into uncharted territory, with no fear. He knew he could do something simple, and he wanted to. He needed to eat more than anyone else in the house because of the donation.

"What are you going to make?" Michael asked curiously as he sat at the table.

"Scrambled eggs," start with something simple. Even Carly and Jason could mix eggs in a bowl, although they might have to worry about a few of the shells getting inside. "But I'm going to put some spices in there, too."

"Did your mom know how to cook?"

He was silent for a moment as he let the memories of his mother in front of the stove pass through his mind. "She wasn't like dad, but she wasn't horrible at it like your mom." He had to admit, it was fun, poking harmlessly at Carly, insulting a well noted character flaw that even she wouldn't mind making fun of herself. "There were a few things that she could make really well. Most of the time my grandmother did the cooking." He had the strong urge to call her, but it was early in the morning in Los Angeles. He knew that he could call at any time, but she didn't need to be woken up just so he could hear her voice. It might have been harder for him to deal with everything if he did hear her voice.

"Do you think she would have liked me?"

"Michael… she would have loved you." His mother wasn't like him. She loved children. Every time he had a new cousin born she was always willing to baby sit, watch over the newest addition to her family. Maybe it was to compensate for the fact that she somehow knew she would never have another child.

"Why don't you talk about her more?"

"Michael, you shouldn't be asking something like that." Jason had heard the conversation. He knew that Michael asked a lot of questions, but sometimes he asked questions without wondering what kind of impact the question would have.

The boy quickly realized that he had done something that was insensitive, "I'm sorry, Damian."

"It's all right," Damian didn't mind the questions so much, but he wasn't going to say that the safe wasn't taken with some degree of gratitude.

"Do you think I can go see Morgan today?" He changed the subject to something that he knew wouldn't be as taboo. "I'm worried about him."

"Morgan's probably going to come home sometime today, so you don't need to go and see him." Damian finished beating the eggs and placed them in the oiled pan. "But if he doesn't come home today I'm sure someone will take you."

"We can go together…"

He stopped his search for the spices that he was looking for on the rack to turn his head over his shoulder, "Michael… I'm going to be busy today. After I eat, I'm going to be gone. Uncle Jason's going to stay with you."

"You're not going to see Morgan?" Michael was puzzled. Was Damian angry at something?

"Maybe later on tonight, but for most of the day I'm going to be doing something alone. Tell you what, if Morgan's still at the hospital and you haven't seen him at all when I get back, we'll go together."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Go wash your hands, breakfast is going to be ready soon…"

Jason watched Michael run towards the bathroom. It was close by, so he kept his voice low. "You didn't have to tell him anything about what you were going to do."

"I didn't want him to think that I was ignoring him… he's barely gotten back to the point where he can stand having me in the same room. Thanks for the save, by the way. You didn't need to do that."

"Are you sure you want to do this, whatever it is, alone?"

"Yeah…" it wasn't the entire truth. He wasn't sure he wanted to do it. But he knew that it was something that he had to do.


	63. Check Out Time

Children's Wing, General Hospital-

They sat outside of his room, looking through the window as the doctor continued to look at their son, checking the readouts that had been recently taken from the machine. Neither Carly nor Sonny had the medical knowledge that was needed to understand exactly what was going on, but they could understand one very primal feeling: they just wanted their son to be okay.

"You know," Sonny began as he wrapped his arm around Carly's waist, "you didn't have to stay out here with me. The doctor said you could stay in there while he finished running those tests."

"I know," Carly, who had finally gotten to the point where she believed that she could no longer shed any tears, longed for the moment where she could hold her son in her arms again. Morgan hadn't been touched by either of his parents in hours. What if he thought that they were trying not to touch him? He was awake some of the time, Carly would look at him, talk to him, even laugh, but she never touched. Was Morgan old enough to understand that it was because she couldn't, not because she didn't want to?

Sonny was still unaware of exactly what was ailing his wife. His assumption, while partially correct, was that she was worried about their son. He had no clue that she wanted to find out who her father was. "So why did you?"

"Because I wanted to be with you…" she said simply as she laced her hand with his. "In case something happens…"

"Something won't happen," Sonny was quick to smother the dark thoughts that were swelling in Carly's head, although he would never admit that the same worries had vexed him as well.

"I just feel that it was unfair that you didn't get to be with him, too…"

"I'm still sick," Sonny had been given medication to help with his own cold, which was not life-threatening in any way. "I feel fine, but… until I know for sure that I'm not a danger to Morgan I don't want to risk going near him."

"You're never a danger to our children, or even your son…"

"I didn't mean it like that," Sonny corrected himself. "You know what I meant, Carly. Right now, Morgan's immune system is barely dealing with whatever it is that he has, adding what I have to it might not be all that wise."

"Courtney… she said that she would talk to you before she left the hospital last night. I told her to tell you that you didn't need to stay…"

"You know me better than to think that I would go anywhere when one of my children was in the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary. Remember what happened the last time I left?" Sonny could never forget. If he had known that Damian and Courtney would have been taken from the 'safety' of General Hospital, he would have never gone to Los Angeles in the first place.

"You didn't have any control over that, you couldn't have known." She could have. She should have. Carly knew Lorenzo well enough that she should have known he was going to do what he did. Even talking about it with Sonny made her feel such guilt over her part in that whole debacle.

"Besides… I didn't want to leave in case you needed me."

Carly gave a meek smile before she waved to Morgan as his eyes looked over at her. "He must be so confused right now."

"He's young enough to forget what happened… I hope."

"Could you imagine what we would be like if we could remember everything that happened to us when we were too young to remember?" Carly didn't want to remember the stories of her childhood with any sort of vivid certainty. It was a part of herself that she didn't want to bask in.

"I still remember plenty…"

Knowing that she should have never said anything, she tightened her hold on Sonny, hoping that the bond would help him battle the demons that were swelling in his head. "I'm sorry… but you know how much those memories helped you be a good father."

"To Michael and Morgan maybe…"

"Stop it," she ordered. "You know that Damian doesn't hold it against you for not being there when he was a kid. None of us do. We all know that if you would have known you would have gone and been by his side the minute he was born."

"You're too good to me, you know that?"

"I don't think I could be anything else but Mrs. Carly Corinthos, your wife. It's a full time job… and I don't even get overtime."

"I think the money I give you when you go on a shopping spree is more than enough overtime."

"Really? I think I'm overworked and underpaid, myself…"

"Well, maybe I'll give you a raise then."

"That'd be nice." Although the fact of Morgan's illness had never left her mind, Carly was glad that she could at least momentarily bring herself to a place where it wasn't so emotionally crushing. Any happiness that was felt inside of her was quickly washed away when she saw her mother walking down the hall. She wasn't dressed in a uniform.

Bobbie didn't exactly enjoy seeing her daughter. She still loved Carly, but that didn't make dealing with the pain any easier. However, Bobbie knew that Morgan was the one who needed to be concentrated on and keeping herself away from her grandson simply because of something that didn't involve him in any way would be petty and dishonorable.

"Mom…"

Bobbie noticed the blankness in Carly's voice. Her daughter wasn't going to back down, it wasn't surprising, Carly never backed down. "How is he?"

"The doctor is checking up on him right now," Sonny pointed at the window. "He should be done soon."

"I tried to get some sleep… but I couldn't. I'm so worried about him."

"We all are," Carly knew that her mother loved her son. Even if things didn't go the way Carly wanted, Bobbie would always be a part of her children's lives.

Bobbie walked over to the window, standing closer to Sonny than Carly, something that she hoped her daughter noticed. "Who did the balloons come from?"

"Lois and Brook Lynn." Sonny was glad that Lois was there with him the night before. He needed someone, and even though his father was there, it was better to talk with a friend.

"I should have known," Carly said snidely. "The gaudy colors and designs could only come from someone who is so tasteless…"

"Actually, Lois let Brook pick the balloons."

"Then I guess she passed the gene onto her daughter. Poor girl. I'd hate to see what her prom dress looks like. Lime chiffon, maybe?" Carly was going to try and do something to help the poor child out. Lois was a lost cause, but there was no need that Brook should suffer the same fate.

Sonny turned a disapproving glance down at his wife, "Lois told me to tell you that she was praying for Morgan's safety."

"Well I'll make sure to thank her for that." They understood each other on that level and that level alone. They were both mothers. If Brook were in pain, Carly would only hope for the best.

The doctor stopped looking at the chart and at Morgan, turning around and walking outside, standing in front of the gathered adults. "Thank you all for waiting, I know that when a child is in pain it can be among the most time consuming period of a parent's life. Or a grandparent…"

Carly finally released her hold on Sonny. "Can we take him home? Can Sonny see him?"

Doctor Jenkins smiled, "Morgan's going to be fine. The virus is losing its hold on his immune system. The blood transplant worked, better than we had hoped. You've both got a strong little baby."

"Is there anything that we should be looking out for?" Sonny wondered. "Any sort of relapse?"

"Right now Morgan's immunity is still frail, but is getting stronger by the moment. If he gets sick in any way within the next few days I would highly suggest that you bring him back in just for the sake of being cautious."

"What about me? Am I a risk to him?"

"It's my understanding that you've been given medication…"

"Yes, I have."

"Then you should be fine. Until you feel completely well, you should avoid any prolonged exposure to Morgan for the time being, but there's no need to keep yourself from him completely."

"Come on, Sonny," Carly pulled at his hand once more, "let's go see our baby…"

"Thank you," Sonny's gratitude was clear.

"Always a pleasure to help save a child. Bobbie, I'm assuming you can remind them of the checkout procedure?"

Bobbie nodded, "Of course."

"Then I've got some other babies to check up on. If there are any problems, if you have any questions, feel free to call my office."

Sonny and Carly weren't paying much attention to the doctor. He had served them well, and they would be eternally grateful for his help and expertise, but that wasn't important at that moment in time. Morgan was.

"Mom," Carly called to Bobbie, "how to do we get him out of that thing?" She had no idea how to remove Morgan from his protective plastic environment, and she would hate to break it.

"Here," Bobbie walked in. It was actually simple to do, but she was trained in using all of the medical devices. She couldn't do surgery, but she could put on an IV, or in this case, take a baby out of a box. Opening the lid, Bobbie smiled as she reached her hands down, touching Morgan. "There's my favorite baby in the whole wide world." She picked the infant up and kissed him on the forehead. "Someone's been dying to touch you for the longest time."

"Hi, Morgan," Carly made the widest possible smile as she reached over, giving him kiss after kiss.

Sonny reached over, his fingers running over his child's, "Let's get him out of here, Carly. I'm sure he doesn't understand why he's here. We should get him back where he belongs."

"I'm sure he'd love that," Carly nodded. "Wouldn't you, Morgan? You want to go back home and be with your brothers and all your toys."

"Here, Sonny," Bobbie handed her son-in-law the balloon bouquet. "I'll head over to the station and get the paperwork that you need…"

When Bobbie was gone, Sonny felt that he had the safety to ask the question that was on his mind, "Are you mad at your mother?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You two just seemed distant… it's not like you."

"We're both just stressed out right now," she lied, but it was a believable lie. She didn't want Sonny to know about her plans, at least not yet. Courtney knew, she might tell Jason, but that was it. It needed to be kept small. "Come on, let's get him out of here."


	64. For A Friend

Port Charles, Outside Kelly's-

If there was one person that Dillon Quartermaine thought he knew better than anyone else, it was his beloved Georgie Jones. She had ways about her that she probably didn't even know about. The way her eyes would move when she was looking for something to distract her. That ever so small grin at the end of her lips when she was hiding something. Georgie couldn't keep secrets very well, but she had even less of a chance keeping them when Dillon was involved.

It was unspoken of the entire day that they were together after leaving the hospital. Instead they talked about anything else to get their mind off of what was happening. Dillon would yammer on about his new camcorder, complete with plans for his first movie, devoid of nothing but storyboards, which he intended on making during his free time. Georgie, he could tell, wasn't exactly interested, but at the same time neither was he. It was hard to think about ones own future when the future of a child who couldn't even understand the concept of 'having a future' was in danger of dying.

Dillon didn't know anything about Morgan's status. He was kept in the dark about most of the goings on that happened scant few feet away. In many ways it was very much like still living in the Quartermaine mansion. They would try and hide things from him, thinking that he didn't understand them. His mother was especially good at that, only divulging her plots, however heinous they may have been, when Dillon could give her something that would benefit her scheme. As such, Dillon was used to being kept out of the loop, but he did not like it. Far from it, Dillon loathed the way that they babied him, but it was still better than the alternative. He had proven himself, at least in his eyes, to both Sonny and Jason. It wasn't that he wanted to do things for them, he didn't, he just didn't want to be treated like he was something different, something incapable of doing anything. If it weren't for Dillon, they probably never would have found Courtney and Damian. Nobody, least of all Dillon, wanted to think about what would have happened if that were the case.

Both teenagers were embroiled in their own inner turmoil. Dillon, however, ever the opposite of the self-serving Quartermaine legacy which he was a part of, shelved his own problems in an effort to make sure that his girlfriend was kept for. Without Georgie, he was nothing. Damian was his best friend, but Georgie was his heart and soul.

"You know… we've been dancing around this ever since yesterday, but I can't do it anymore." Dillon walked her over to the table outside of the restaurant, where they had spent many times, both good and bad. "You need to tell me what's bothering you, Georgie. I can't help you unless I know what's going on." Dillon knew, of course, what was going on. How could he not? She cared about Morgan. They all did. She was worried about him, but he needed her to say it to him.

"I couldn't sleep last night," Georgie admitted as she shifted uncomfortably in the chair. "I'm such a loser… I'm being kept up at night because of a kid who isn't even mine, who isn't even related to me… who I barely even know. Why am I like this?"

Dillon frowned. Georgie was always hardest on herself. The same could be said for everyone, though. They were their own worst critics. Constantly second guessing themselves. It was the curse of being human. But Dillon would not stand idly by and allow his girlfriend to believe that she was not a good person. "You're not a loser, Georgie. I didn't sleep either. And I know for a fact that Sonny and Carly didn't, neither did Bobbie, Mike, or anyone else. The fact that you care so much about someone who you barely even know shows that you have a big heart. It shows that you care about people because you are that type of person. The world needs more people like you… and less people like the Quartermaine's."

"I didn't mean to do this, you know?" She asked, eyes of sadness and guilt looking directly at the boy that she would have never guessed would someday take claim of her like he had. She had no regrets about kissing Dillon before she even knew anything about him. She had no regrets about anything she did with Dillon. It was all part of the tapestry that would some day make up their love story. "I didn't mean to call you up and have you come with me downtown just so I could put all my problems on you."

"Georgie, if you ever needed me I would be there for you regardless. You know that, right?"

"Of course I do, but I still didn't want this…"

"I'm not complaining," Dillon placed his hand over hers. "You know that every moment I spend with you, when we're laughing together, or when you're crying on my shoulder because of something that happened, it is still a moment in my life that I would never give up for anything."

She smiled weakly, touched by the sentiment that was being given, yet unable to completely embrace the touching words that her boyfriend was giving her. "Dillon… how do you think he's going to do it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Damian. You know, when he becomes a doctor. I just volunteer there… and when stuff like that happens I don't know how I manage to make it back there the next time I have a shift. I'm only there because I want to be. He'll be there because it will be his job." Georgie stopped herself, not wanting to insult Dillon's best friend and a man that had become close to her heart as well. "He's strong, we both know he is… but at the same time he's still deep down…"

"He's still haunted by the mistakes of his past…"

"Yeah," Georgie averted her eyes. "You know, sometimes we think about the things that we've done and how much we hate them, or how we grew up… but compared to him…"

"I know," Dillon nodded. "My mother and I may not ever be as close as Damian was with his mom… but I know that if I saw her die the way that he did I would still… I don't even want to think about it. He doesn't talk about what happened all that much, and I respect his decision to be private about it, how could I not? I'll always wonder, though. How he managed to even get up in the morning is beyond me. And then there's that thing about Alcazar…"

"Which wasn't even his fault…"

"We all know that Alcazar was a lunatic. But when you take someone's life, that has to have an impact on you…"

"I know that he can do what people want him to do. I know that he can study and learn how to be a good doctor. But just because you have the grades and the knowledge to do things doesn't mean that you're emotionally prepared for it…"

"He has to come to that decision himself, Georgie," Dillon was in complete agreement with her. "And we have to support his choice, regardless of what it is. I think that maybe he'll have a hard time at first, but who doesn't? Alan would tell stories about his first few months and the way that he could be shaking before he went into the hospital. Jitters are part of the job."

Georgie tried to picture Alan Quartermaine being nervous about something that just seemed to come so easily to him. It was hard, but she remembered the way she used to get nervous before a test. People just started getting into the process and it became easier for them.

Turning around, Georgie saw people inside of Kelly's. She saw Elizabeth, who was helping with the customers. "Do you think that Mike's there?"

"Why would he be?"

"We should check," Georgie suggested. "If he is there, then that means that Morgan's okay…"

"Yeah, but even if he isn't there, that might not necessarily mean that something is wrong with Morgan still. Mike just might have wanted to take the day off so he could be with his grandson. I would do it if Morgan were my grandson…"

"I can't even picture you as a grandfather… do you think you'd still have the hair?"

Dillon grinned and chuckled. "I'd make it a family trait… all my sons and grandsons would have the 'Dillon Quartermaine' hair. It wouldn't be like George Forman naming all of his son's 'George.' It would be something a little more manageable."

"That's what I love about you… the way that you can just turn the mood around…"

"I wouldn't have been able to if it weren't for you," Dillon got up and helped her get to her feet. "Come on, if we're going to go inside, we might as well do it now."

Elizabeth had seen the teenagers take a seat outside, but she was so distracted with the customers inside that she hadn't seen them get up. By the time she heard the door open, she was giving the order that they had placed over to the cook. "Hey, how are you?"

Dillon and Georgie shared looks of concern, wondering what they should tell Elizabeth, if anything. It was Dillon who spoke, "We're okay, been better, been worse."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"You could tell us something," Georgie said cryptically.

"Shoot…"

She continued with the question, "Is Mike here?"

Elizabeth gave them the answer that they needed, although it was not necessarily the answer that they wanted to hear. "No, guys, I'm sorry, he took a personal day off. I wasn't even supposed to be in today, but he called in a favor since he wanted to make sure that someone with experience was here in case the replacement cook had any problems."

Dillon knew what Georgie was thinking. The same exact thing that he was. Mike wasn't there, which meant that Morgan was probably still in the hospital. But Dillon also knew that just because his mind went to the darkest possible outcome it didn't mean that there was only that chance. "Did he say what he was taking the day off for?"

"No…"

Georgie pulled out her cell phone, "Do you think I should try and get in touch with someone?"

Elizabeth could see it in their faces. There was something that was wrong, and Georgie's phone didn't help matters. Hating to be uninformed when the people that she cared about where in trouble, Elizabeth refused to let Dillon and Georgie leave until they told her something. "You two need to tell me what's going on, right now."

"It's not really our place to tell you, Elizabeth," Dillon wasn't happy that he was keeping information from a person that was as nice as Elizabeth was, but the point was valid. It wasn't his family, he wouldn't have even known if it wasn't for the fact that he was called.

"Listen to me," Elizabeth began, "Mike Corbin is a very good friend of mine and if he is in trouble I want to know what's going on. I don't care if it involves him or if there's something that he's dealing with. Please… I care about him, don't make me worry even more."

"Georgie, make the call," Dillon suggested. "I'll tell her." He didn't know if he was going to get in trouble, but he couldn't keep the information from Elizabeth without feeling some sort of guilt.

Georgie nodded as she walked toward the other end of the diner, not wanting to tip Elizabeth off before Dillon had the time that he needed to tell her what was wrong. She was calling the hospital, they would be able to tell her if Morgan was checked out.

"Nothing is wrong with Mike, Elizabeth," Dillon noted. "But, yesterday afternoon, Morgan got really sick with some sort of viral infection that made Sonny and Carly take him to GH."

"Oh my God… that poor baby."

"Yeah…" Dillon knew the story, everyone in Port Charles did. Ric tried to take Morgan from Carly and Sonny. Elizabeth had no part in that. "When Georgie and I left the hospital yesterday he was still in pretty bad shape. He needed to get some blood, but Sonny's also sick, not as bad, but bad enough to the point where Morgan can't get blood from him because it could do more damage. Damian gave him the blood, but we don't know if the transplant worked. We were hoping that Mike was here, because if he was then it would probably mean that Morgan was all right."

"He would take the day off regardless…"

"Yeah, we figured that… but it was worth a shot."

Elizabeth could only try and comprehend Carly and Sonny's terror, not to mention everyone else, even Jason. She still cared about so many of the people in that family, she would never stop caring about them. Even though Carly wasn't her favorite person in the world, Elizabeth would never wish her to go through such anguish. Nobody deserved that pain.

Georgie came back, smiling, "We don't need to worry anymore, guys. Morgan's going to be fine. They checked him out of the hospital a little while ago…"

"That's wonderful," Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Everyone must be so glad."

Georgie saw Dillon pick up his phone. "Who are you calling?"

"Damian," Dillon put the phone up to his ear. "I just want to tell him that we got the news and that we're all happy for him and his family." Dillon waited for a moment, then another. The phone continued to ring until the voice message was given. "He's not answering again…"

"He's probably just spending time with Morgan," Elizabeth suggested. "Left the phone in his room or something…"

None had any idea that the simple and happy suggestion that she had implanted in their mind was quite possibly the furthest from the truth that it could have possibly been. While a part of Damian would have loved to be at the house with his baby brother, obligations had him in other places.


	65. Time Limit

Note: Daytime Emmy Nominations have been announced! Constant characters or semi-constant, for this story are: Steve Burton, Rick Hearst, Adrienne Leon and beloved Scott Clifton. Best of luck to all the GH nominees and everyone else, too.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

Completely aware of the fact that her nephew was going to be safe and returning home, Courtney found no reason to head over to the hospital, and for that she was thankful. She realized just how much time she spent there. It always seemed like there was something wrong with someone in her family, and she hated that. Even if it wasn't her family, it could be one of her friends. The people around her weren't ever as safe as she wanted to believe. It was a reality check that Courtney Morgan would have much rather gone on without.

But, if there was one thing that was positive about everything, it was the knowledge that they would be happy again. They rallied together after something bad happened, it was the way they were. They even rallied together when the horrid was happening right in front of them. Courtney was thankful that she had a family that was so supportive. They even tried to help her through her troubled times, despite the fact that they knew it would have little to no impact. Just the fact that they cared enough made Courtney thankful that she had stayed in Port Charles even after the brief moments in her life where she thought about leaving.

"Shouldn't we have balloons or something?" Michael wondered, excited as ever at the prospect of his baby brother coming home. Though he would never admit it, Michael was hurt by the fact that he could do nothing for Morgan. Even though they were both so young, Michael felt that it was his job to do something to protect his younger sibling, and while he may not have failed in the eyes of his parents or the rest of his family, Michael had failed in his own eyes.

"I'm sure the last thing that Morgan needs right now is a bunch of people crowding around him." Courtney had seen Morgan, something that Michael and even Jason couldn't claim. She'd never seen the boy look so pale. She was scared that he wasn't going to make it, even after the transplant went through. "He needs to recover from the ordeal that his body is going through."

"So I won't be able to play with him?"

Jason was proud of Michael, more than he could ever admit. "Buddy, I know how you want to do everything with Morgan that you used to do, but the truth is that right now he's still too tired to do any of it. You know how you feel after you've gotten over the flu? Even though you're all better, you still feel kind of tired?"

"Daddy makes his chicken soup… does Morgan need some of that?"

"He's still too young for the soup right now. But what I meant was that Morgan's better, he's going to be all right, we all know this, but he's still a very tired little boy. He needs his rest more than anything else."

"So how can I help?"

"Well… you can be quiet when he's trying to sleep, even more than you normally do. You can read to him and help him go to sleep, you can watch him and make sure that he's not coughing or doing anything that people do when they're sick." The list that Jason was making in his head had been cleared. There weren't many things that Michael, or any of them, could have done, but giving the boy something was much better than giving him nothing at all. "Those are the best things for Morgan right now."

"I'll do my best!" Michael proclaimed proudly. "I won't say anything when Morgan's asleep, I'll just read my comics or play my game boy with the sound off."

"See?" Courtney smiled at the boy and his efforts to be a good big brother, something that he had already proven himself to be time and time again. "Those are the types of things that you should do for people that you care about, especially after they're sick." Courtney looked at the clock. It was nearing the afternoon. Michael was dressed in regular clothes, but that didn't mean that everything was taken care of. "Michael, did you eat breakfast?" She knew that Jason wouldn't have dared attempt cooking.

"Yeah…"

"It was something somewhat healthy, right?" She cast a wary eye on Jason. He could be the gruff uncle, but more often than not, especially with Michael, he would cave. "Jason didn't just hand you a box of cookies, did he?"

"Why would I do that?" Jason asked.

"You've done it before," she countered.

"That one time…"

She giggled, "You only need to make a mistake one time for it to be remembered, Jason. What did he have for breakfast?"

"Damian made him scrambled eggs and toast."

"I don't smell any lingering scent of burning eggs or metal… so I'm going to assume that if he almost burned the house down, you took care of it."

"Uncle Jason thought that he wouldn't be able to cook, because nobody but daddy can make anything in the kitchen without a lot of smoke coming from the room, but Damian said that he could… and he did. It was really good."

Courtney walked over to her husband, whispering in his ear, "Jason, you made sure that he didn't burn any of Sonny's cooking ware, right? Just because he made something edible doesn't mean that the pan made it through the trial…"

"Everything is fine, Courtney. I was right there watching the whole time. He said he couldn't cook many things, but he knew how to make enough to feed Michael… which is more than I can say."

"You could always take lessons from Sonny," she grinned. "I wouldn't mind trying some of your own chicken pot pie one of these days."

"I wouldn't want to risk poisoning you with my cooking, so that's out of the question…"

Their private comedic moment was halted when they heard the door open. Carly walked in first, Sonny closely following behind before he shut the door. He moved the blanket that was covering Morgan out of the way, "Look, Morgan, we're home…"

Carly could see that her son was sleeping, and he had no intentions of waking up. It didn't matter to her. She just felt complete holding him in her arms. "Courtney, could you hold him for a second?"

"Of course," Courtney took the baby from her best friend's arms. She looked down at the innocent nephew who she had almost lost. Her Godson. Courtney said a silent prayer hoping that Morgan would never have to go through something like that again.

"Mommy… are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, Mister Man!" Carly got on her knees, "I just couldn't give my brave big boy a hug while I was holding Morgan." She wrapped her arms around her firstborn child, taking great comfort in the knowledge that both of her children were safe. "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, Michael. I know you must have been scared and I wish that I could have done something to help you with that…"

"It's okay," he said quietly, trying not to wake Morgan up because that was what big brothers did. "I know that you were afraid for Morgan, and he's just a baby so he can't tell you what was wrong with him. You had to go and take him to the hospital so the doctors could make him all better."

Carly was amazed at the maturity that Michael was showing. It was completely forgotten that only a day before he was busy giving the cold shoulder to everyone but her. When Michael needed to act strong he would do it without hesitation. That was something that Carly knew she could be proud of. "I don't think I've ever been happier to know that you're my son than right now…"

Courtney was once more touched by the moment that Carly and Michael were having. The feelings that were swelling inside of her were constantly telling her that she would never have such a moment with her own children, but she ignored them as best she could. "You know, I think Morgan would have a much better time getting some sleep if he was in his crib."

"You want to help us put your brother in his crib?" Carly asked.

"Okay," Michael held his mother's hand as they walked up, Courtney behind them with the baby safely bundled up.

Jason and Sonny were left alone. Jason could see that Sonny was stressed out and tired, and why wouldn't he be? "How you doing?"

"Better than I was twelve hours ago," Sonny admitted as he poured a glass of water for himself. "I always forget that no matter how much money I spend to make sure that my children are kept safe I can't keep them safe from everything…"

"Sonny, you didn't fail Morgan," Jason knew that his words would fall on deaf ears, especially to the man that he was speaking to. Sonny always thought that when something bad happened to his children it was somehow his fault. Michael could sprain his ankle playing soccer and it would be Sonny's fault. The curse that Sonny placed on himself was often his greatest weakness. "He got sick, nobody could have done that to him… it just happened."

"I don't know what I would do without you and Courtney," he admitted. "You're really here for both me and Carly when we need you. I know I don't say it very often, but thank you."

"You don't need to thank me or Courtney. We love Michael and Morgan and we would do anything for them."

"Is Damian sleeping?" Sonny wouldn't be surprised if he was. It took everything that Sonny had to not be knocked out on the couch, it looked so inviting.

Jason could not lie to Sonny. He had spent a good portion of his life being lied to and he knew that he didn't want to be the type of person who did the same thing to other people. "He's not here right now, Sonny. He woke up this morning and spent a little time with Michael before he left…"

"Where did he go?"

"I… I don't know."

Sonny didn't like it when Jason didn't know things. It usually meant that something bad was going to happen. "Did you try and find out?"

"He said that he needed to go somewhere, by himself," Jason could already see the conversation exploding, all that was left for him to do was brace for the impact. "He told me that he would be safe, that he was going somewhere that wouldn't put him in any danger."

"He's alone, in Port Charles, and my enemies know that he's my son… how can he not be in any danger?"

"Sonny… calm down, you're going through a lot right now, and you don't want to wake up Morgan."

"Why did you let him go, Jason?" Sonny asked. "I trust you to protect my children from danger… is Damian not good enough for you to protect?"

"Sonny…"

"I'm sorry," Sonny knew how heated his words could get. He needed to find some way to channel his anger in a way that didn't destroy his relationships with his friends, but when it came to his children… Sonny lost all logic, as would any parent. But he knew that Jason did care about Damian, maybe not as much as Michael and Morgan… but enough to protect him.

"You weren't here, you didn't see his eyes. You should know better than anyone else how people have things that only they can do by themselves. Sonny, that's practically the biggest part of your life. He's a twenty-one year old man… he was going to go out that door even if I tried to stop him."

"You have no idea about what he wanted to do? Nothing?"

"It was important to him, but he wouldn't tell me anything, and I didn't feel that it was my right to ask after he said he needed to do it alone. He told me to try and get you to leave him be. He said he'd be home later tonight, he even promised it."

"Three hours," Sonny muttered. "I'm giving him three hours to at least call someone… after that, I'm going to look for him. Are you going to help?"

"I'll do what I can…"

Elsewhere-

He looked at the closed doors and froze for a moment. Why did it seem like it always ended up coming back to the one place he didn't want to go? Instead of facing his inner demons, he only turned and walked away, but he wasn't going to give up. Not today. He just needed time to find the part of himself that would be comfortable with what he needed to do.


	66. Old Chums

Scorpio Household-

Sleeping was hard, but when was that not the case? Even before she got involved with Damian, Maxie would always have some reason for staying up late and losing sleep. It may have been because of the guilt that she felt, knowing that she had survived where her cousin had not. Or because Mac wasn't back from his job yet and it was late at night and she didn't know if he was all right or if he was about to get shot and leave her. There were many nights when Maxie was kept up because of the anguish that came with her mother, with that feeling of being unworthy of Felicia's love and time. Plus, there was Kyle, and all the problems that came along with that. It seemed that there was always something that bugged Maxie. It had become a part of her life, but it wasn't a part of her life that she enjoyed.

She had checked up on Morgan a few times during the night, never once going in because of the fact that Carly was there. They didn't like each other, or at least she didn't like Carly. Maybe Carly didn't so much hate her, but that wouldn't stop Maxie from loathing a woman that had done nothing but forced her sweet, innocent, well-intentioned boyfriend a world of pain. Was she being a bit vindictive? Yes. Did she care? No. Because if Damian wasn't going to stand up for himself, then who else was going to do it? Carly had everyone else in that family wrapped around her finger. Even when they knew she was wrong, even when they called her on it… there was nothing that came from it. Like a slap on the wrist. That was exactly what Carly got from her family. If none of them were going to stand up to Carly, then it fell to her. She'd heard the stories, and Maxie didn't care.

But Maxie did care about Morgan, and even felt sympathy for a woman that she should have cared less about when the baby was sick. She might have loathed every fiber of Carly's being, but she never wished Carly the pain of seeing her child in pain. Nobody deserved that, not even Carly, or, for that matter, Felicia. Why would it matter? Her mother wouldn't have come around even if she or her sister were hurt. Maxie knew that for a fact. Felicia's life was far too important to be bogged down with the troubles of being a mother. Just like Frisco.

Finally getting up out of bed, hours later than she had expected, Maxie walked over to her dresser and sat there. The dry remains of her runny mascara could be seen. She wept for that baby, one who probably didn't even know who she was. He was still so young, so innocent. Nobody deserved to be taken like that. Especially a baby.

Her eyes diverted themselves to another part of her mirror. The lower corner, where her pictures were. She picked one up, one that she would always cherish. The first picture that they took together. It wasn't with Santa, because she knew that he didn't want to take it with a mall Santa, but it was shortly after Christmas. Sort of like another Christmas present that he got her, in addition to the bracelet and the letter. She still thought that he spoiled her too much, but he didn't mind.

Picking the picture up, removing it from the spot on the mirror where it had been since she got it into her room just a little while after it had been taken, Maxie smiled. They looked so happy. And they were happy. They were still happy, even at that moment. At least with each other. But she realized how frail life was, and how the happiness that was shared could be shattered in an instant without any sort of reasoning.

Placing the picture back where it belonged, Maxie grabbed her bathrobe and headed into the bathroom. Georgie was gone, she had been awoken for a moment while she heard her sister leave, but maybe her dad was still home. She'd check when she got out of the shower.

Mac would never say anything, but he missed her. He missed Felicia. Even though she had done a lot of things to hurt him, from the lies to having relationships with other people, he still loved her. To think that it all started with a wedding that they didn't even want to really happen until the very end. He understood and respected Felicia's choice to be with her grandmother while she was ailing, knowing full well just how much Felicia's grandmother meant to her, but that didn't mean that he liked it. He didn't like the way that she handled her parenting responsibilities, as in not handling them at all. Still, it was Felicia's life, and nobody could lay claim to it except for her. There were plenty of times when people probably should have, but she was stubborn as ever. A trait shared by her daughters, who had also inherited Felicia's weakness for bad boys. From Frisco to Luke, and maybe even a little bit of Mac himself… it only mirrored on the girls. Georgie with Dillon. Maxie with Lucky and then Kyle and finally Damian. That could have very well been the reason why Mac tried so hard to keep them away from such people, because he didn't want to see the girl's that he had loved with all of his being fall under the same routine. He'd seen it happen with Robin. To see it again would be crushing.

Taking a sip from his coffee mug, Mac's ears heard the sound of someone knocking on his door. Curious as to who was the person doing so, he got up and looked out the peephole, a wide grin appearing on his face when he saw who it was. An old friend. "Lois!"

"Mac!" Lois hugged him tightly. Mac and Felicia had been good to her. Lois only regretted that it took her so long to see Mac, although she knew that she wouldn't be seeing him with Felicia. "How's my favorite Commissioner?"

"I've been well, and if the way that you look is any indication, so have you." Mac opened the door, "Please, come on inside."

"I don't mean to disturb you, if you have somewhere that you need to be, if you have to leave, please, go ahead…"

"I'm not expected in for a few hours," Mac liked it when he didn't have to leave so early. Even though Georgie had left, he still had time to spend with Maxie, and in truth she was the one who worried him more of the two. Dillon was a problem, but he wasn't as bad as Damian. "I heard that you were back in town."

"Yes, although I wish that the reasons were better than they ended up being. I heard about Lila's death after it happened, so I didn't get the chance to say goodbye like I wanted. I didn't even give Brook Lynn the chance to truly meet the most wonderful woman that has ever graced my presence. Don't let my mother know that I said that, she would kill me."

"It's true, though," Mac nodded. "Lila Quartermaine was something else, a class all her own. We were all stunned when we heard that she was gone. Nobody expected it."

"So, as soon as I finished the tour that I was doing, I took my daughter and brought her on the first plane back to America. We spent a few days with my family, because I wanted to make sure that they were all okay, then we came here. On Christmas Eve."

"Ned must have loved that."

"He did," Lois remembered the way his face lit up. Even though they weren't married any longer, she was still glad that she could do something to make her Eddie smile like that. "I shouldn't have kept Brook away from her family like I did. I know that now, and I'm trying to make up for the mistakes that I've made."

"So, you're planning on staying?"

Lois bit her lip, "I don't really know, Mac. Port Charles has a lot of memories, but I'm not going to try and lie to you, saying that they're more good than bad. The good memories are great, but it's the bad ones that keep me up at night as I try not to cry thinking about everything that's happened here."

"The same would happen anywhere else, Lois. There are good and bad things in life, that's the way it works out."

"You always end up coming up with the logic, don't you?"

"Part of my job."

She placed her hand on his cheek momentarily before taking it away, "I just wanted to see how my old friend was doing. I've seen your daughters, they're both very beautiful, and I'm sure you raised them to be the best kids that they could be."

"You obviously haven't seen who they're dating…"

"Actually, I have." She thought back to the hospital. "Georgie's dating my ex-brother-in-law. They're such a cute couple."

"No comment."

"Now, Mac, I know the way you are with those girls. You can't keep them sheltered from the world around them forever. They're not five anymore. Besides, Dillon's a good kid, I can tell. I can also tell that he loves your daughter very much. What more could you ask for?"

"Someone with less of a criminal record, maybe?"

"He's a teenager. They get into trouble, its part of the requirement."

"You can stop trying to talk some sense into him," Maxie, dressed and ready for the day, came walking down the stairs. "Dad's never been one to listen when he's tried to make up his mind about something."

"He's always been like that," Lois agreed. "Men… they can be so pigheaded."

"Standing right here…" Mac commented.

Lois was quick to spin one of her patented retorts, "Then maybe you should try paying attention for once, since you can obviously hear what's going on."

"We've done just about everything but give him diagrams and pie-charts pointing out how the people that we care about are who we want to be with. He's gotten better, though," Maxie had to admit that Mac had warmed up, at least slightly, which, by his standards, was considerable, to their relationships. "I mean, he's not trying to arrest Damian and Dillon for just looking at us."

"Damian?" Lois couldn't believe her ears. "You're going out with Sonny's boy?"

"Ironic, isn't it?" Mac muttered. "My daughter going out with the crime lord's son."

Lois could only roll her eyes. She'd gotten into the discussion about Sonny and his merits with Ned, but she wasn't going to tell Mac off, especially in his own house. "Has he played the piano for you, Maxie?"

"A few times…"

"He doesn't get that from his father, let me tell you," Lois thought back fondly on their time growing up. "Sonny tried to learn how to play the flute… I think he just ended up breaking it against the side of the wall. Luckily it was a plastic flute, wasn't even real. But Sonny and music… they've never really gone together. From what I've heard, he's quite good."

"I love it when he plays the piano." Maxie remembered how touched she was the first time it happened. The way that he said that he hadn't done it for years, but then he had a reason to again because of her. It was enough to make her misty eyed.

"Do you know how Morgan's doing?" Lois asked, the mention of Sonny being quick to bring up the concern that was only barely a few layers below the surface. "You work at the hospital, I figure you might know."

"He was doing all right last night, but I don't know if anything's changed."

"What happened to Morgan?" Mac hadn't heard any of the information, to him it was all fresh and new.

"He caught a virus of some sort, dad," Maxie didn't really feel like telling him, but since he already knew it wasn't like she could get away with holding the information from him. "He needed some blood, and Damian was the only one who could give it to him. Damian saved his little brother's life. I'm sure a horrible person would have just let the baby die."

Mac didn't appreciate the comment. He didn't want people thinking that he would rather a baby die, because that was a lie. "Maxie…"

"I'm sure your father is just doing what he can to make sure that you're safe, Maxie," Lois tried to play the mediator, something that she was quite used to. Although the struggles that the 'Q's' as she so fondly called them were a little bit different from whatever Mac and his daughter were going through. "The best way to end this feud is for you to prove him wrong."

"You're right, Lois," Maxie nodded. "I've been trying to do that, and I'm going to keep on doing it."

"Now you're just going and helping her with her relationship," Mac sighed. He cared about Lois, but he didn't want her getting in the middle of things that didn't concern her. Not that he could stop her. It was part of what made Lois who she was.

"Mac, your little girl is all grown up. Let her make her own choices. The best thing that you can do is be there for her when she needs help. Maxie, you still know that you can come to him whenever you need him, right?"

"Of course," Maxie looked up at her father, "I'll always know that I can count on you. It might be the last thing I want to do, but if I need you, I'll come. But right now I'm going to see if everything is all right with Morgan. Bye."

Lois watched Maxie walk out the door. "You know, I like to think that I'm a good judge of people… and I can almost guarantee you that Damian Corinthos is never going to put your daughter in any sort of danger."

"At least not intentionally, I know that much. But it's what could happen simply because of who he is that worries me." The primal fear, one that Mac knew well. One moment, his daughter could be laughing, happy as she had ever been, the next, used in a ploy simply because of her association with Sonny.


	67. Want And Need

Corinthos Household-

It was hard not to pace around the living room of his home while he waited for some sort of notification that his oldest son was all right. Sonny had foolishly believed that he could finally take a break and not have to worry about his children, but that ended up being one of the biggest mistakes he could have made. He always needed to worry about his children. They were always in danger. Maybe not just because of him, but it didn't matter. There was always the chance that something could have happened that he couldn't stop. He'd been reminded of that too frequently in a short span of time. First with Michael, then Damian and now even Morgan.

Jason had left with Courtney a short time prior. Sonny did feel that he had spoken too harshly to his best friend and right hand man, but at least Jason understood that the words that Sonny said were not entirely what he believed. When Sonny was afraid, he lashed out, even at the people who just wanted to help. It was a fact of life. And Jason usually ended up being on the receiving end of that lashing. Sonny was just thankful that he hadn't yet pushed the man away. While Carly and the children were a big part of his support system, his rock, Jason was up there with the rest of them. Things would fall apart without Jason, everyone knew that.

Finally giving up on the pacing when the soles of his feet became weary from the constant motion that they had been in since the night before, Sonny succumbed to the fatigue, but refused to let himself sleep. How could he sleep when one of his children could be out there, alone, looking for help? Even if Jason said that Damian didn't believe he was going to be in any danger Sonny knew that it was far from true.

Slumping over on the couch, Sonny Corinthos looked over and saw the gift that his son had given him. A lifetime of memories that Sonny could only hope to look at in picture form. It was more of a gift of love, but it was also a gift of torment, because each picture would show Sonny just what he had missed in one of his children's lives. It was better to see them somehow, but that did not make the pain any less difficult to cope with. Sonny was a man who hated failure, and the worst kind of failure to him was the failure of being a father.

Carly had stayed up in the nursery since she had taken Morgan there, but she was at least assured enough in Morgan's safety that she could check up on her husband. Ever cautious, Carly kept the baby monitor in her hand, and if Morgan made the slightest cough she would be the first one to run up the stairs and back into his room to make sure that everything was all right.

When Carly looked at her husband she knew that there was something that was bothering him. It wasn't hard to see. Sonny wore his emotions on his sleeve, even when he tried to hide them. That was actually the time when it was easiest to see what was wrong with Sonny. It wasn't that he was bad at hiding how he was feeling… at times, but more often than not, Carly could see it in her husband. He couldn't hide it, not from her.

Standing behind her husband, Carly gently put her hands over his shoulders and did her best to give him a massage. She wasn't trained in the skill, but any effort was better than nothing, at least that was what she was telling herself. Even though she didn't know much about the practice one thing was painfully obvious to her. "Sonny, you're so tense…"

"Why shouldn't I be?" Sonny asked, grateful for his wife's attempts at helping him, but not exactly enjoying the work that she was doing. As long as it wasn't painful, he wasn't going to make her stop. It could hurt her feelings and he would hate to alienate someone else in such a short span of time.

"Morgan's going to be all right," Carly tried to be as certain as she could, but it was hard, since she didn't really know for sure. Looking over his shoulder, Carly could see that Sonny was intently examining a book, "What are you looking at?"

"Damian's baby book…"

A small laugh came from Carly's mouth, "Look at that hair… and those clothes. God, when I look back at the eighties… sometimes I wonder what we were thinking."

"I'm not looking at this picture album for fashion statements…"

The seriousness in Sonny's tone of voice made Carly know right away that joking around was not going to help her husband with whatever it was he was dealing with. "Then what are you looking for?"

"Answers."

"Answers? To what? Sonny, what's wrong?"

"I don't know." Sonny turned the page, his eyes constantly looking at each piece of information, each picture. If there was something that Damian needed to do the best place to look was in his past, and the book in Sonny's hands was the only link that he had. "I wish I did…"

"You're starting to worry me," Carly stopped with her massage and walked over to be beside him. "Tell me what's wrong, Sonny. Please. If he's in trouble… I want to help. I really want to help him."

"He'd be touched to hear you say that…"

"I figure I owe him for a lot of things." More than she would ever let on, that much was certain. "Why don't you try asking him? If there's something wrong… he might tell you. He trusts you now."

"He's not here, Carly."

"Where is he?"

"We don't know, that's why I'm looking in this book. He told Jason that he needed to go be alone for some reason, but he didn't say why. All he said was that he was going to be all right, but I'm still worried about him."

"He can take care of himself… he's a big kid."

"What if he gets hit by another truck, Carly?" Sonny asked, completely oblivious to what the implication meant to his wife. "I don't want to take chances, not with my children. I almost lost Morgan…"

"His mother was so pretty… I can see why you…"

"It wasn't like that," Sonny quickly interrupted her. "It wasn't consensual on either of our parts. We were forced into it… the only thing that we had for privacy was the blanket that was over our bodies."

"Someone was watching you?"

"Scully… and her father." He should have known at that moment what a soulless bastard his former boss was, but Sonny was young and stupid. Still a teenager. Looking for something, anything, to get him out of the life that he had been used to growing up. "Elias tried to keep his eyes closed, but he could still hear her crying, hear Scully taunting him…" thinking about it brought the memories back. "Carly… her eyes… I could see it in her eyes. The way she would look at her father. I took something from her that only a man who loved her should have."

"You didn't have a choice… if your son can forgive you for what happened, why can't you?"

"Because he doesn't have to remember what happened… even if she were alive, I don't think Ana would have ever really forgiven me for what happened. She loved her father so much, she'd probably hate him just because she wanted him to be happy with her."

"Sonny…"

"Every child has a right to know both of their parents. Even if their parents end up being horrible people, they should at least know that… it's better than thinking that they're some sort of superhero who just stayed away from them to keep them safe. I may not have ever liked Mike for what he did, but at least I knew…"

"I can't do this anymore…"

Sonny wasn't sure what Carly meant by her statement. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't want to tell you… but I think you should know. Last night, when I was with Morgan… I made a decision about myself and my life that you need to know about."

"Just tell me, Carly… I'll do my best to understand."

"I want to find my father," she whispered. "I want to know what he looks like, who he is… I want him to know that he has a daughter and two grandsons."

"Are you sure about this?"

"You just said that every child has a right to know who their parents are…"

"I know," Sonny wasn't going to take back what he said. As far as he was concerned it was the truth. "I just want to know that you're ready for this. It could be something that you might regret after it happens, and once it's done, there's no way that you can take it back."

"I need to know, Sonny."

"Talk to your mother…"

Carly shook her head, "Mom won't help me this time. I know it. I already asked her, she refused to tell me anything."

"That…" Sonny remembered the time that they were in the hospital. The distance that was between Carly and her mother. "That's why you and Bobbie weren't really talking this morning, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Sonny, I know that she's not proud of the person that she was when she had me, but she's not that person anymore. Bobbie's a respected nurse. Even if people found out about the type of girl that she was they're not going to think that she's that type of woman now. They know better."

"Do you think she knows?"

"I know that she's holding information out on me." Carly was certain that Bobbie had at least an idea of some people who could be her father. There was only a short period of time in which she could have been conceived. Really, how many people could it have been? "But I don't know if she'll ever give it to me."

"Do you want me to try and ask her? Or maybe I can have Mike do it?"

"No. I need to do this on my own… or try as hard as I can. I just wanted you to know what I had planned, because I know that if something happens… you'll be there for me, but you'll be able to help me more now that you're aware of everything."

"For what it's worth I think that you're doing the right thing."

"I knew you would understand." She was truly blessed to have a husband like Sonny. Even when they drove each other crazy, which was quite often, they would always come together when they needed each other. "But try and keep Michael away from everything. I don't want him to get his hopes up about having a new grandpa… only to have them crushed."

"What about your hopes?" Sonny asked. "Carly… what I said, you know it's possible. Your father could be the type of man that you wouldn't want for a father. Are you sure you're really ready to have something like that happen?"

"He's still my father… I just want him to know that I exist. Maybe he'll hate me, maybe he'll hate himself for never knowing about me… I need to know, Sonny. That's all I want."

"Okay," Sonny understood her desire. "Thank you for telling me…"

"Maybe I shouldn't have. At least not right now. Not when you're dealing with everything."

"You're still important to me, Carly. I don't want you to ever think that I can't help you with your problems, because I would do anything for you, you should know that by now."

"I do know that." Carly was assured and comforted by her husband's devotion. One of the few constants in her life.

Elsewhere-

It took him a long time to actually get inside, but after the many personal battles that came with taking a few steps and then walking away he finally managed to open the doors and walk in. There was nobody inside, and for that he was thankful. It was easier to do things alone. People didn't ask questions and he didn't have to state the pain that his heart was feeling. It was bad enough that his mind wouldn't let him forget, to have to recite it once more just seemed cruel.

The light poured in from the stained glass windows, hitting the center. It was always like that. It was like that when he said goodbye.


	68. Hints From Home

Kelly's-

Elizabeth had been waiting around for hours, doing her job when customers came in and sitting around waiting while they weren't. Even though she knew that Morgan was all right it didn't mean that everything was okay in the Corinthos household. Even when a person knows that everything is going to be all right it doesn't change the fact that they still worry. When her rapist was taken away and she knew he would never harm her again she still felt the fear. Even to the very day, she still felt the fear.

Ric came into the restaurant for the first time since he and Mike had their altercation. It took him that long to just feel comfortable with opening the door. The fact that he didn't see Mike scowling at him was certainly not something that worked against him. But that didn't mean that Mike wasn't there in the back.

Hearing the door open, Elizabeth turned to see who it was, smiling widely when she saw her fiancé. "You've finally decided to step back in here?"

"I couldn't keep myself away from you," Ric put his briefcase on the first clear table. "No matter what happens around us, that's always going to be the truth. You're irresistible to me."

"The feeling is mutual."

"I was thinking we could get away from Port Charles for New Years Eve…"

"Ric," Elizabeth liked the idea, but it was a little too late, "where are we going to go? New Years Eve is in two days."

"We could just go right outside the city limits and park, have a picnic under the stars…"

"It's a wonderful idea, but it's still snowing outside. Stars don't come out when the snow is out, at least not all the time. And it would still be cold."

Ric laughed, "You just love to kill all the romantic ideas that I have, don't you?"

"Not all of them," she replied. "I still let you propose to me, didn't I?"

"Have you given any thought to that?" Ric asked. "I know that you said you wanted to be the one who planned everything… and I've been really good with the waiting thing, but if you have any sort of ideas as to what you want, please tell me."

"I just want a little ceremony." Elizabeth didn't want a lot of people around her. While she was friends with many, there were only a few who she considered close enough to want at her wedding. Lucky, Emily, Nikolas, Audrey, the people that she cared about more than anything else.

"Are you sure? I thought people like you enjoyed the Vera Wang dresses and doves…"

"Are you saying I'm materialistic…"

"Well, you did grow up during the Reagan years…"

Elizabeth gave the man a playful slap on the arm, "That's enough out of you, Ric! I told you what I wanted, and I'm not going to change my mind."

"A small wedding ceremony sounds perfect, Elizabeth." It was what Ric wanted as well. The less people he had around him also meant the less people who could doubt his sincerity. It was true that he didn't care what other people thought about him and his relationship with Elizabeth, but he didn't want them casting doubt on a relationship while he and Elizabeth were getting married. Elizabeth didn't deserve that. She deserved only the best.

Maxie walked in to Kelly's and saw the older couple. She had her doubts about Ric and Elizabeth, just like everyone else. But she could see that they cared about each other, and while that often wasn't all that was needed to make a relationship work it was more than enough to try and give it a shot.

"Maxie…" Elizabeth gave a brief wave to the girl, "if you're looking for Damian I haven't seen him all day…"

"I was looking for him," Maxie sighed, denied the chance to be with the man that she loved.

"Morgan's doing all right, if you didn't know," Elizabeth knew that the girl would want to know if she hadn't already been informed. "Your sister was over here earlier and she called the hospital, said that he had been checked out and was on his way home. We just assumed that Damian was there helping Morgan get settled."

Ric had not heard anything about Morgan. His family didn't keep him in the loop, something that hurt him on levels that even he didn't completely understand. "What happened to Morgan?"

Elizabeth glanced over at Ric. It didn't surprise her that he didn't know anything, but she was disappointed that nobody had even bothered to notify him. Morgan was his nephew. She wondered if they would even tell Ric something had happened at all. Maybe it would always fall to her, which seemed unfair to both Ric and herself. "He got sick, but he's better now. Thanks to his big brother."

"Sometimes I wonder why he's not already a doctor." Ric knew that there were people who had a calling in life, he figured that Damian's was to be a doctor.

Maxie heard her phone ring and sat down, digging into her purse and picking it up, "Hello?"

"Maxie… its Sonny."

Maxie didn't mean for her body to freeze, but it happened. Getting a call from Sonny could mean a lot of things, and none of them in her mind were very good. "Hi. Is everything all right?"

"Is my son with you?"

"No." Maxie's blood went cold. "I thought he was with you… Morgan got home all right, didn't he?"

"Yes, Morgan's fine, thank you for asking. But Damian wasn't here when we got home. He told Jason that he was going to do something on his own, but that was all that he said. I was wondering if he had told you anything…"

"No, he didn't tell me anything, Sonny." She wondered why he didn't tell her anything about it. If he wanted to do something he could have told her. She would have gone with him to be there for him.

"Do you have any ideas as to what he could be doing?"

"I'm sorry… I don't. He's never told me anything about what he would be doing today. I thought he was just going to rest. Have you tried calling him?"

"He's not picking up his phone… again…"

Maxie wondered why Damian would risk doing something like that. The last time he almost didn't pick up his phone Morgan got sick. But there had to be a reason. Maybe it wasn't a very good reason, but there had to be one. "I'm sorry, Sonny… if I had anything that I could help you with, I would."

"If you see him, or get in touch with him… please have him call me. I'm worried."

"So am I," Maxie mumbled. "I'll make sure that he gets in touch with you if I see him first. Sonny, if you do… please have him talk to me, just to let me know that he's all right."

"I'll do that. Thank you, Maxie." The phone went dead as Sonny hung up his end of the line.

"Something wrong?" Ric asked, having heard part of the conversation, his ears especially taking note when Maxie said the word 'Sonny.' It wasn't voluntary, just something that he did as a habit when it came to his big brother.

"Sonny doesn't know where Damian is… which means that he's not at the house with Morgan like we thought."

"Well where he could he be?" Elizabeth asked, knowing full well that nobody in the room would have the answer to that question. "It's not like him to just disappear without telling anyone."

"Which is why I'm worried." Maxie stood up from the chair and headed toward the door, "I'm going to start looking for him. If you guys see him…"

"We'll tell him to call you and his father," Elizabeth's face showed the worry that was so obvious. She cared about that young man, had since shortly after he came to Port Charles. He'd gone through so much. She hoped he was all right. Looking over at Ric, she could see that he was thinking the same thing.

Maxie kept the cell phone in her hand as she dialed for information. She knew that if Damian wasn't picking up for his father then the odds were that he wasn't going to pick up for her. Neither of them knew anything, but they weren't the people who knew Damian the best. "Operator? Could you give me the number to Elias and Victoria Zuniga in Los Angeles please? Yeah, connecting would be great." She'd only met them once, but they had made quite an impression on her, and she was almost certain that the same could be said the other way around. Forgetting a girl who was being held hostage on your lawn was a little difficult.

She turned around the corner, standing just under the archway past Kelly's while the phone rang. It dawned on her that the time was different, but she knew that since it was already in the mid-afternoon in Port Charles it wouldn't be too early to call over there. "Please be home…" maybe she shouldn't have been calling them. It would do nobody any good to worry more people about Damian, but if anyone had the answers aside from the man himself the people who raised him would be the most logical choices.

A female voice answered the phone. Maxie could tell that there was a small twitch of sadness in her voice, "Hello?"

"Mrs. Zuniga?"

"Yes, this is she…"

"Hi. This is Maxie Jones… do you remember me?"

"Maxie?" She made the name a question as she struggled to put a face to the name. "Damian's girlfriend?"

"Yes…"

"Is he all right?" Victoria couldn't take another day where she had to deal with worrying about her grandson.

"Actually… I was hoping that you could tell me that yourself," Maxie was worried once more. "We don't know where he is right now, Mrs. Zuniga. He hasn't told anyone about what he was doing to do today… and we just wanted to know if maybe there was something that you could tell us."

"Today…" she struggled with the information, as if saying it would bring more pain. But Victoria knew that it didn't matter, either way, the end result was the same. "His mother passed away on this day, Maxie."

She remembered the story that he told her. His words passed through her mind 'a few days later, she was gone.' It was a few days after Christmas. "Mrs. Zuniga… I'm so sorry, I didn't know. He never told any of us when she died."

"Damian's always done what he could to make sure that the people who he cared about didn't have to feel like they needed to take part of his burden. He can be a bit stubborn at times… frequently, actually. But I don't know how he's doing right now, Maxie. He's all alone in another part of the country, none of his family is there to share in the pain."

"You're wrong… and I don't mean that in a mean way, but he has people here who care about him."

"I'm glad that you are in his life, Maxie. Glad that he has someone who can care about him in a way that he deserves. He was always so hesitant to fall in love when he was growing up… but I can see now that he was just waiting for someone who he felt he could give himself to."

Maxie blushed, "Thank you for the compliment and the information. I'm sorry about today… I hope you can make it through."

"It's never very easy… but my daughter would want us to be happy. Please, make sure he remembers that. She would hate it if he was miserable."

"I will. Goodbye." Maxie hung up the phone. She knew where he was… but she also knew that it wasn't her right to help him cope. "Sonny? It's me… I think I know where he is…"


	69. Mirrors

Elsewhere-

"It always comes down to this, doesn't it?" He asked while looking at the cross in the center of the church, the image of Jesus being nailed there. "This is the last place that I ever want to be, but the first place that I end up going whenever I think of you…" he should have hated being in the church. It represented everything that he hated. Hypocrisy, lies, false hope. "The only time I've ever even been in a church since… since you died is on this day, and I'd still rather not be here. But it's important to you, and I always was a mama's boy…" he smiled at the last comment. Maybe she was able to hear him. Maybe she wasn't. He chose to believe that she could, even if it meant going against the logic that he tried to cling on so desperately. Sometimes logic could only do so much, even for him. "I miss you, mom… I miss you so much."

He leaned his head against the back of the pew that he was sitting on, closing his eyes, remembering the woman who had been everything to him for long, who was still everything to him.

Los Angeles, 1990-

"What are you doing in here?"

He moved some of the hair out of his eyes. It was too long, but he hated getting haircuts and would do whatever it took to make sure that he didn't need them. "Nana said that I could…"

"Corazon," Elias walked up behind his daughter and kissed her on the cheek, "let mihito play the piano. What's the worst that could happen? It's already gotten old because your mother refuses to use it. When I think of all the times that she begged me for a piano…"

Ana-Maria grabbed her father's chin with her soft hands and finely manicured nails, "All right, Papi… for you."

"That's my girl. You never know what could happen because of him starting. They say that people who play musical instruments have a better chance at getting good grades in school."

The boy could hear their conversation, and chose that moment to speak up. "I get good grades already…"

"Just wait until you get to long division," Elias snickered. "Then we'll see how good you are." The old man had long since concluded that long division, along with fractions and decimals, were the work of the devil. That was the only way to explain them. Satan must have created them to drive people insane.

Ana-Maria waited for her father to leave before she walked towards her son, sitting on the bench in front of the piano with him. "You know, when I was a little girl I wanted to play the piano, too. But your Nana didn't let me. She said that I was going to do better things with my life and I needed to concentrate on that."

"What were you going to do?"

She sighed, looking at the child that had hanged her world and also changed her fate. Who knew where she would have been if she hadn't have gotten pregnant. If her father's past wouldn't have cost her something that was so precious. She didn't hold it against any of them. It was her choice, and she loved her child dearly. She brought out an index finger and gently brushed his nose, "It doesn't matter anymore, because the best thing that I've ever done is be a mother to you."

Corinthos Household-

"Sonny?" Carly saw her husband grabbing his jacket. She found it odd that he would choose such a time to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Maxie just called…"

"Is she with Damian?"

"No," Sonny reached for the door. "But she thinks that she knows where he is."

"How would she know that if you don't?"

"Because Maxie was smart enough to call his family in Los Angeles, something that I wouldn't have done." He was glad that she was the one who did it, too. It saved him the grief that came with each call of visit that he made to the Zuniga's. Sonny did not deal with grief very gracefully. "Today's the anniversary of his mother's death…"

Carly closed her eyes, giving the woman that she never met, a woman that she might have hated on some level deep down, a moment of respect, more for her son than anything else. "Do you want me to come with you? Jason can watch Michael again…"

"One of us should be here for Morgan." Sonny finally opened the door. "Besides, I'm his father, I have to do this."

"Sonny," Carly yelled, waiting for him to turn around, "tell him that I'm sorry…"

"I'll do that." Sonny walked to the elevator and hit the button, waiting for the doors to open before he stepped in.

Carly gave a long sigh of pent up frustration. "Why did you think that you had to do this alone?" She knew that he couldn't hear her, but that didn't stop her from asking. "Don't you know that your father would have been there for you…"

Elsewhere-

His eyes were open again as he looked at the phone that was right beside him. He'd lied to himself. Said that he would never miss another call on purpose. But the phone clearly showed him that he had missed almost a dozen, most from his father. He wasn't risking Morgan's health. He made sure that the baby was all right before he made the choice to start skipping calls again. He just needed to be alone. The only time that he couldn't depend on anyone was at that moment. They couldn't understand. None of them knew his mother, and everyone who did was thousands of miles away. He didn't even want to call them, knowing that they were going through just as much as he was and that adding himself to their grief was going to do nobody any good.

"It's funny the way that I used to think that you loved being a mother so much. A lot of the people who I went to school with… they had both of their parents working all the time, but you were always home unless you were out doing something. But you never worked. When I needed you… you were there. That doesn't mean that you loved being a mom, though, does it? I'm sure you didn't mind doing everything that you did for me… for my future, but I know that you wanted more. I was too young and too stupid to realize just how much you wanted to do something else, anything else. If I could… I would have gladly told you to do that. I'm sorry, mom. Sorry that I was too selfish to give you the chance to be happy."

Los Angeles, 1994-

He knocked on the door of her room. He was doing his homework. Fractions, which he constantly bragged about to his Papi about how he thought they were easy, even though he didn't think they were. But he was doing well regardless. The difficult things were often the things that he needed to know the most.

"Come in…"

He opened the door, seeing her sitting on the couch right in front of the window. When he was younger she would take him there and sing to him when he had trouble sleeping. She didn't have the best voice in the world, but to him it was more than enough. "Nana said that you wanted to talk to me about something."

"Yes, I need to tell you something, honey." She patted the seat next to her, "Come here, please." Out of the corner of her eye she could see her mother fighting back the tears. Ana-Maria had requested that Victoria not tell Damian the truth, that her son deserved to hear it from his mother's mouth. She also asked that her mother not make the truth look obvious. Ana-Maria could see that Victoria had held back the tears for a few minutes, but they were falling from her face freely now. Ana-Maria didn't mind. She wanted to cry, too, but she was still too numb to really understand. Understand that she was going to die before she got a chance to see her son make it through high school.

"Does this have to do with the doctor visit that you made while I was at school?"

"How… how'd you know about that?"

"You were talking to him while I was walking out. I thought you just went for your checkup a few days ago… did he not see you or something?"

"Damian," she struggled with the news. How could she tell him that she was going to die? No little boy deserved to be hit with such news. But she couldn't lie to him. It wasn't just because of the fact that she was a religious person, it was because he had a right to know, and hear it from her. "I did see the doctor when I said I was going to see him for my checkup…"

"Were you making an appointment for me?"

"No… he called me back because he wanted to talk about something that he saw when he examined me. He wasn't sure about it at the time, but earlier today he got the results that he was looking for."

He may have been young, but he was hardly stupid or unaware. He knew why people went to the doctor. "Are you sick?"

She sat there, partially grateful that he had managed to figure it out on his own, yet still completely destroyed by the fact that it was happening to her. How could they have never known? How many times did she go in for a checkup and they never caught it? She put her own child at risk… it was there when she was pregnant with him. "Damian… I have cancer."

"No, you don't…"

"Damian…" she reached out to touch him.

He jerked his hand back the moment he felt hers, "No! You don't have cancer! People die when they have cancer and the doctors can't do anything about it! I don't want you to die…"

"There's nothing we can do… nothing but pray."

"Mom… mommy…" he collapsed at her lap, succumbing to the truth that he had tried so desperately to deny. But he knew then that there was nothing he could do. He just let her hold him.

Queen of Angels Church-

Sonny always had reservations about going back to the Queen of Angels. But he had tried most of the other churches in Port Charles. It would be his luck to have his son go to the one church where he had almost died.

The whole time that Sonny was looking for Damian he couldn't help but ask himself why the boy hadn't told anyone about what the day meant for him. Why did he have to be so private about it? Sonny didn't think that his son was so stubborn, but now he knew better. Did Damian think that Sonny didn't love him enough to try and help? Maybe he and Ana were never married, were never really in love, but that didn't mean that he wanted her dead.

Opening the door as quietly as possible, Sonny saw that the place was empty, with the exception of the boy at the front. With his son's head turned, Sonny couldn't see what Damian was going through, but it was easy to imagine.

Sonny tried not to alarm the boy as he walked to the other side of the church, lighting a candle for the mother of his firstborn child and saying a prayer for her spirit to rest in peace. Another quick glance at the boy showed that he either hadn't noticed Sonny, or was ignoring him. At that moment in time Sonny wasn't sure which was which, but it didn't matter. Damian may have thought that he didn't need any help, but that was anything but the truth.

Unaware of his father's presence in the church, Damian continued to sit there, staring at everything, remembering the memories that he had of the first woman who had ever claimed his heart. Thinking of her so much made him desperate for her touch just one last time. For a moment he thought his wish had been granted when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Hopeful, he turned around, but his hopes were dashed. "Dad…"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because… because this is my life…"

"I'm a part of your life now, Damian. I thought you realized that. I'm your father and I want to help you with any problems that you might have."

"This isn't something that you can help with… you can't bring back the dead."

"Nobody can."

"I hate this," he admitted. "I hate that I have to be here… without her. Dad… I miss her."

"I know you do."

Instinctively, the boy leaned against his father as he had done many times in the past with his mother. He refused to be reduced to the crying mess that he had been before, but that didn't stop a few tears from falling down his face. They said that it would get easier each year… why was it only getting harder for him?


	70. Walking Away

Journeylove- Thank you very much for the compliment. When I look to write these things, especially the chapters that I want to be impacting, I do the best that I can. I'm glad to see that the emotion hit you like I wanted it to. As for my favorite couple… while I love Jason and Sam together a lot, I'm a Journey fan at heart. I hate Courtney with Jax, mostly because I hate Jax. Sonny and Reese are good together, but Carson is what I know, it's what I do. GQ, as rare as they are on, still make me laugh, which is a good thing. But my favorite couple at the moment is Rexis. I know I have this story with LiRic, and I won't change that, but Ric and Alexis are great together. Oh, they make me laugh.

Story-

Corinthos Household, Morning-

Damian was glad that his father was there. Even though they didn't say much to one another the whole time that they were together at the church just having his father there was something different. He'd never had his father in his life before August. He'd never been able to even look for that smallest degree of comfort that came from a parent's welcome and loving arms since his mother died. His grandparents were of great help, but they weren't his mother or his father. Sonny was. Damian didn't realize how much it meant having his father hold him while he silently shed tears like he was a small child again until it happened.

Best of all was the fact that Sonny didn't ask questions. Sonny didn't go in with any sort of expectations for some sort of confession by his eldest child. Sonny understood that the pain and the happiness that came from being Ana-Maria's son was something that only he could lay claim on and that if Damian wanted to talk about it he would. Truly, the young man couldn't ask for a better father than that.

Stepping out of his room, slovenly dressed from a still restless night of sleep, he couldn't help but snicker when he saw his father standing in front of the fireplace already in a suit, looking like he had come back from a photo shoot of some kind.

"You're really going to need to teach me how you do that…"

Sonny had heard the door open, but it was surprising to him that the boy took the time to speak. He'd been silent the entire night before, something that Sonny understood and respected. "Do what?"

"Never let anyone see you looking anything but chic…"

"You're making jokes already? Fast recovery…"

"I allot myself six days a year to be miserable, dad. I almost never use them up… but December 29th is a day that I give to myself… completely to myself."

"You didn't have to do that alone."

"I realize that now," he said softly. "I should have told you what was going on, but there's something about it… I don't really talk about what happened, what I felt on that day with anyone."

"Why?"

"Here I was giving you props for not trying to push yourself too far into my own personal demons. Guess I jumped the gun a little too soon…"

"You're my son," Sonny pointed out the obvious fact. "I care about you and when you're in pain, like you were yesterday, I think I have a right to know why."

"It's obvious why I was in pain yesterday, dad. I lost the woman who was everything that I had to something that nobody could fight because people were too stupid to realize that there was something wrong with her until it was too late. I know that the chances of people surviving from cancer are slim, but if it's caught in time it can be prevented. How many people have been saved? How many families didn't have to go through what my family did? How many children didn't have to see their mother wither away like some dying flower? Why did they get to be so lucky?" He paused for a moment, realizing that the frustrations were strong and they weren't going away. "Why couldn't I be one of the lucky ones?"

"We always ask ourselves those questions after we lose someone that we care about, Damian. When Lily and my baby were killed in that car bomb I kept on asking myself why I didn't make sure I was the one who started the car. The bomb was meant for me, it wasn't meant for her or the baby that was inside of her. But she was gone, and there was nothing I could do about it. You don't have a monopoly on feeling guilt and grief over what happens when someone dies."

"That was a little harsh…"

"You want honesty, don't you?" Sonny asked, knowing that the answer was yes. "When I didn't tell you what I did with my life, when I lied to you because I thought that it was going to be something that you couldn't handle you said that you could and that I should have told you the truth. I agreed with you then, and I'm doing just what I should have done at that point right now. Everyone grieves in their own way, Damian. Sometimes I do it by taking it out on the people that I care about, just ask my father… but you don't have to do what so many other people do. You don't have to let it eat you up, even if it's only for a little while around the time that your mom died, because eventually you're going to lose it and nobody is going to be able to save you from what you would have become."

"You don't understand…"

"I understand perfectly…"

"You didn't lose your mother the same way I did…"

"You're right. I never heard my mother tell me that she loved me one last time. I never got the chance to say goodbye. My mother always loved me, just like yours did, but my mother didn't want me around at the end. She pushed me away because of the stupid choices that I made and the stupid choices that she made that she was too proud to admit were mistakes. So, you want to think that you're some special case because of the way that you lost Ana? I agree, what happened was horrible. But you got the chance to say goodbye. Do you know how many people didn't even get that?"

"I'm sorry." He realized that he was being selfish. But he couldn't help it. The wound was reopened, it was still as fresh as it was when she died in front of him. But that wasn't all that he had to feel guilty about. He had spit on the memory of his grandmother, however unintentional it may have been. He was careless and disrespectful towards the relationship that she had with her son, his father. Damian realized that it was something that he shouldn't have done.

"You don't have to apologize. You just need to realize that I'm going to be here for you, and even when I'm not there will be people who are going to be. You still have your friends, your family… we all care about you. We all want to help you. You just need to give us the chance."

"How… how'd you find out about your mother?"

"Some random person who I didn't even know came up to me. I don't know how he got the information, but he did. I called around, found out it was true. I wasn't even there for the funeral."

"What happened that made the two of you so distant?"

"My stepfather was an abusive bastard, you know that. I finally got old enough to stick up to him and I did… but my mother didn't see it as a way of standing up for myself and for her. All she saw was that I was asserting my authority over a man that I should have been submissive to. It didn't matter to her that there were days when I would have to miss school because he would beat me so hard that there were obvious bruises that I couldn't say I got because I slipped while I was playing kickball. She just saw what had happened and told me 'Michael, you need to go.' And then it was done. I was gone by the end of the day."

"But you said she still loved you…"

"Because she did," Sonny knew it in his heart. "You never stop loving your children, Damian. No matter what they do to you, no matter how much they hurt you, you're never going to stop loving them on some level. You might need to place some distance between yourself and your child, you might even fool yourself into thinking that you're a better person because they're not in your life anymore, but it doesn't make it true."

"Look at me… I get on you for trying to pry into my life and I just turn it around and start trying to get into yours."

"I don't want to keep secrets from you anymore… I shouldn't have in the beginning. I learn from my mistakes."

"So do I," Damian agreed. "Until you told me about your mom, dad, I didn't think about it like that. I didn't think that people had some sort of pain that related to mine. Plenty of people before me have lost their mother's. Maybe not in the same way, but the feeling is the same. It helps a lot… I'm not so blinded by my suffering anymore. I have you to thank for that."

"Always glad to help out."

"I still don't get how you found out…"

"Your girlfriend called me."

"Maxie?" He was surprised by the revelation. Maxie knew about the day his mother died? How did she manage that one?

"She said that she called your grandparents over in Los Angeles. Did you even talk to them yesterday?"

"No." The guilt built up inside of him almost instantly. "I'm such a horrible person. They raised me. Even when she was alive they were as much a part of my life as she was… dammit, I've always been so quiet about everything. I didn't even try and think about how much pain they were going through. How my stoic approach towards it could hurt them."

"I don't think they hold it against you."

"I would…"

"You're a harsh critic, especially on yourself."

"You should have seen how hard I was when I would have to enter macaroni art for my elementary school art fairs…"

"Back to the jokes?"

"Sorry. If I don't use humor as a defense then I just use complete silence. You should be happy that you're getting the one that involves hearing my voice."

"You might not think that you show your pain, Damian. But you do. I saw you yesterday. I saw your heart and your soul shattered into a million pieces. Everyone feels like that at some point in their life, and if it's already happened to them they can relate. You would do the same thing if someone was feeling pain, wouldn't you? You've done it plenty of times for the people who have needed you. When Lila died… who was there for Dillon and Jason? You…"

"A lot of other people were there for them, too…"

"Yeah, but you always made sure that they had someone to talk with. You were there for them when they needed it, and even if they didn't need your help they knew that it was going to be there."

"And you're saying that even though what happened to me was almost a decade ago, people would still be there for me?"

"People say that things get easier with time…"

Damian's sneered, "I hate that saying. So much."

"It gives a lot of false hope. They don't say how much time it will take for things to get easier. But that doesn't mean that they're wrong. It will get easier eventually. Maybe not right away. I still have plenty of times when I feel like I lost my mother, my wife, my children, just like it was yesterday."

"I'm surprised that you didn't give me this speech yesterday… after we got out of the church."

"You wouldn't have listened yesterday."

The boy agreed wholeheartedly with that. The night prior he was pretty much shut off from the world, barely able to even feel the touch that he found so comforting. Numb to the point of nearly being unresponsive. "But today… it's a new day."

"She would have wanted you to be happy."

"I am happy. Sometimes."

"If you need to go see her grave… I can ask them to get the jet ready. I could go with you, if you want."

"No, thanks," he appreciated the offer, but it wasn't what he wanted or needed. "Seeing her grave isn't something I'm ready to do right now. If I change my mind I'll tell you. Maybe you should come. You can tell her embarrassing stories about our time together…"

"Or just thank her for keeping you and telling you who I was." Sonny believed that he would do his idea before his son's. Ana-Maria may have never expected him to be such a blessing in Sonny's life, in fact, she may have wished that the boy brought him nothing but pain. Much to his delight, and hopefully hers as well, such things were as far from the truth as possible.


	71. Delayed Thanks

Journeylove- I never liked Jax from the moment I saw him on the screen. I still don't. I liked the beginning of the Casper romance, only because Courtney was being cute and funny, but I always hoped she would just ditch his ass… alas, I didn't get what I wanted. I still like Courtney, always will, but I'm going on what I remember loving her for and am using that to keep on loving her. Reese and Sonny probably won't work… what with the whole wedging between the Holy Carson. Only Jason and Sonny can get away with wedging the Holy Carson. Hopefully they can make it worse, but I doubt it. Brook's part in the story will be slowly built up… or maybe not that slow, depends.

Kelly's-

He walked into the restaurant as he had done many times in the past. They really needed to find some other place that they could hang out at other than Kelly's. It wasn't that he didn't like the food, or the service, but eventually it would grate on him, of that he was almost completely certain.

Damian was still pleased, however, to know that at almost any time he walked into Kelly's there was at least one if not two friendly faces that would always be there to greet him. The first friend that he had ever made in Port Charles, or, in the case of that moment in time, his grandfather. "Morning, Grandpa."

"Good morning," Mike had returned to work after his single day off. It was all that he needed. He would still worry about Morgan, it was impossible not to. But Mike had seen his grandson in the crib at the house and that was all the assurance that Mike needed to believe that Michael would be fine for the time being. "Did you come to eat, or just to chat?"

"The second. I'm meeting Maxie here, too," he saw that his beloved girlfriend had yet to show up, which in some way was a good thing because it gave him some time to speak with his grandfather. "How are you doing?"

"Shouldn't I be asking the question of you?" Mike asked, his eyes gleaming with concern. "When I went to visit Morgan yesterday you weren't there. Neither was your father. Carly… she told me what happened."

"She shouldn't have."

"Would you rather I have never found out that you were in pain?" Mike was hurt, but he understood the need that people had to keep their pain in a way that was expressed only to themselves. He had a few instances where the same could be said for him.

"No, not at all… I just think that it should have come from my mouth, not hers." He was only slightly upset with Carly, but he understood her motives. He would have done the same if something had happened to her. "I'm going to assume that she told everyone… Uncle Jason, Aunt Courtney."

"Probably…"

"Maybe even Michael…"

"I don't think she would go that far," Mike tried his best to assure the young man of Carly and her highly eccentric methods. "Carly knows that there are some things that Michael can't handle, that he should be kept from. I think she would know that your mother's death was one of them."

"It's in the past now…"

"But it's going to be with you forever. You're never going to forget her."

"And I don't want to forget her," Damian leaned against the counter, "but I also don't want people constantly reminding me of the fact that I lost her. I can never forget that she's gone, Grandpa… it's always going to hurt, but at least I can dull it with friends and family, something I couldn't really do before. This is the first chance that I have to immerse myself in something else. Before, when I was with my grandparents in Los Angeles, I couldn't turn the corner and not see something that reminded me of her. Now… here, in Port Charles, I have a chance to be happier."

"I wouldn't try and take that away from you, Damian." Mike had been proud of the boy so many times in the past before, but he would always do something, show some part of his persona that Mike had never seen before that would make the old man even more proud.

"You need to know something else…"

The tone in Damian's voice made Mike worry. "Is everything all right? You're not going to leave, are you?"

"Well, I won't be around here as often…"

"Did I do something? Is it because of what happened with Ric last week?"

"No, no it's nothing like that." He still needed to do something about his interfamilial animosity. "I took the internship…"

"You did?"

"Yes, I did."

"That's great!" Mike gave him a pat on the back. "I think it calls for a celebration of some sort…"

"No celebrating, please. You're actually the first person that I've told about it, besides Monica. I think Bobbie might know… but I didn't get around to telling dad yet. Since you already did know about it I felt that… well, I should tell you."

"What made you change your mind?"

"Morgan…"

"What about him?"

"The fact that I was there, doing something that was helping him. If I was a doctor I couldn't have done it because I'm family, but it showed me that I needed to be responsible, especially if I intend on doing my dream. I couldn't keep pushing it back because I didn't think that I was ready. Even if I'm not ready for it, Grandpa, I have to do it, because eventually it's going to need to be done."

"When do you start?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I wish I knew. The start of the term is on Monday, maybe I'll start right away. They might have me wait a little while. Whenever they want me to start is pretty much when I'm going to start."

"And you'll be a doctor…"

"Intern. I won't do any of the really important stuff," he was very grateful for that. He'd done some minor surgery before, or at least if it could be called surgery. What would taking a bullet out of a man's knee technically be considered? All he knew was that he wasn't ready to have someone's life be on the line in his hands. Bloodstained hands.

"I'm sure you'll do the best that you can do, Damian. I have nothing but faith in you."

"Don't use that word… please…"

"Oh, right." Mike knew why he would have trouble with the word 'faith.' Why wouldn't he? The woman had almost ended his life and the lives of so many other people. "I hate to change the subject on you, but it appears that your girlfriend has arrived."

"Really?" He looked over his shoulder to see her standing outside, as if she was hesitating, looking for some reason not to go in. When she saw him look at her she tried to make it seem like she didn't see him. "I think she wants me to go outside…"

"I'll be in here if you need me, and even if you don't need me right now, you know I'm only a phone call away, right?"

"Yeah," he pushed himself from the counter and headed for the door, "I've always known that."

"Dammit," Maxie mumbled as she saw him coming. She wasn't angry at him. She was just afraid that he was going to be upset at her for doing something. Or maybe he was still hurt from what happened the day before. It wasn't like he could just turn off his grief like it was a water hose.

"Is there a reason why you didn't come inside?" Damian wondered as he pushed open the door. "Because I can assure you that Grandpa didn't burn anything if you're worried about the smell."

"Stop it…"

"Stop what?"

"Stop trying to make it seem like everything is all right when we both know that it isn't!" Maxie sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. But I'm worried about you. I've been worried about you since yesterday."

"I know you were worried about me…"

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, hurt that he had kept it from her. "You told me about what happened around Christmas. Why couldn't you tell me that yesterday was the day that your mother died? I thought you trusted me enough to tell me anything!"

"I should have told you."

"You're damn right you should have!"

"And I'm sorry that I didn't."

"You are?" She was surprised that the battle had been won and that she was the victor. It seemed too easy.

"Maxie, I love you more than I've loved any other woman aside from my mother, and I love you in ways that I never loved her. It's because of how much I love you that I told you about what happened when she died… but I guess it was my love for her that kept me from telling you about the day that she did die. It was my day where I could just remember her alone. I didn't want to take that away from her."

"I wouldn't ask you to take anything away from your mother. I know how much you love her."

"I need to thank you…"

"For what?"

"For telling my father about where I was. I didn't know how much he was going to help me until he came there and just sat with me. I needed a parent more than I realized, and you gave me that. I can never repay you for it."

"It didn't seem like it was my place," Maxie said softly. "I knew about what had happened because of what your grandmother told me, but aside from that I didn't know anything else. I called your father because it was his right to know, and I didn't insist that I go with him because that was something that you needed to deal with… I just told Sonny to have you call me."

"Sorry I waited so long."

"It's okay. I'm just glad that you did call. I was afraid that you wouldn't… or if you did, and you asked me to meet you somewhere, it would be to end everything."

"Why would I do something like that?" He couldn't fathom ever desiring a moment to break it off with Maxie anymore. There were a few times at the start of their relationship where he felt that he couldn't give her what she deserved and what she needed, but he had smothered those doubts and had committed himself to her as much as he possibly could.

"Because I was afraid that you would be mad at me for getting into your life…"

"At the beginning, I was." He wasn't going to lie to her. "When dad told me that you told him where I was I didn't like it. But I got over it, because I understood what it meant to you and I know how much you mean to me. You did that because you thought it was the best thing for me, and it might have been. It probably was."

"How are you doing with it? You seem better…"

"I'm good at masking my pain at times. Yesterday wasn't one of them. I didn't really want anyone to see me because I didn't want them pitying me. I hate feeling pitied. I'm still hurt. I'm always going to be hurt, but you know what? I'm okay with that now. I shouldn't be afraid of showing my vulnerability around you or my friends and my family… but especially you, because I know that we can only build on what we have by being honest with one another."

"We will…"

"It's going to be harder now than ever, you know?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I won't have as much free time to be around you as I have. I'll be busy with school… and my internship."

"You took it?" She said as she smiled. "I'm so happy for you!"

"I'm sure we'll be together a lot more, since we'll both be at the hospital… but I don't think we'll have the time to be together. Kissing in the hallway closets seems a little unprofessional, doesn't it?"

"I don't care if we can't do anything together… just as long as I know you're all right and you're happy. That's all I've wanted."

"It's all I've wanted for you, too. Come here." The young couple embraced, their problems not fading away in some magical expression of love, but becoming much lessened because of their unified passion. They were stronger when they were together, that was what made them who they were.


	72. The Final Plea

Although Carly was not aware of it, her stepson and his girlfriend had only barely left the area. She would have been happy to see him smiling and not tormented by the demons of his past. It seemed to be a trait with the Corinthos males, something that couldn't be avoided. She could help Sonny with his problems, but she wasn't sure she could help Damian with his. Carly wasn't even sure that Damian would let her, and that was in part due to the distance that she had foolishly created from the moment that he walked into their lives.

However, Carly had more important things on her mind. It tore at her to leave Morgan, to not be with her baby in case something did go wrong. It wasn't that she didn't trust Sonny, Jason and Courtney with the child while Leticia was away, Carly did trust them all fully to keep her children, both of them, safe, but she wanted to be with Morgan. Sadly, priorities made it so that she had to leave the baby. She could have used Morgan for leverage, but Carly was aware of the risk that the baby was in for catching another cold at least for the next forty-eight hours. As much as she wanted everything to turn out in her favor, there were some risks that even Carly Corinthos, with her vaunted psychopathic plans, found herself unwilling to make. Morgan's health was just one of them.

She waited under the archway, looking at her mother. Carly was slow to approach the woman because she didn't want Bobbie to be angry with her and Carly in turn did not want to be angry with her mother. She loved Bobbie and she always would, but just because a person loved another person it did not mean that they would always agree with one another.

"You can come out of your hiding spot…"

A small shiver went down Carly's spine. She knew that Bobbie was talking to her. "How'd you know that I was there?"

"Mother's instinct…"

Carly continued walking towards her mother. "Funny that you should mention that, mom. Because I have a mother's instinct, too. And it's telling me that the information that I'm looking for is something that I need to keep my children safe."

"Carly…"

"Please, mama," Carly begged. "I don't want to have to make you remember these things, but I don't have a choice."

"You do have a choice!" Bobbie retorted fiercely. "You have a choice to let the past stay in the past. You don't need to know anything about your father. What kind of father would you expect to come from a man who would just randomly have sex with a teenage hooker? Honestly, Carly…"

"You became a better person, didn't you?" Carly could see the pain in her mother's body. It radiated off of Bobbie. Knowing that she was the one who caused her mom even more pain than she had when she first arrived in Port Charles did not make Carly happy. If she could do it any other way she would. Not having the luxury of choices did not make her happy. "Who is to say that the same couldn't be said of the man who is my father? You were a teenager… he was probably a teenager, too."

"Not likely," Bobbie shook her head. "Most of the men who I… serviced…" she struggled with the word, struggled with the world that she had once been completely engrossed in. She cared about Ruby, but sometimes she hated the woman for letting her do what she did. "They were quite a few years older than me…"

"Well the person is older now regardless, right? When people get older they get wiser, just like you."

"You're being entirely optimistic, you know that, don't you?"

"Sometimes I have to be the optimist in order to make sure that my family survives, mom. I'm not going to keep on asking you for your help. If you won't give it to me then I'm going to stop, but you know what's going to end up happening?"

"What's that?"

"You're going to lose something that's very important to both of us. You're going to lose my respect for you, mom. Something that took us both a long time to come to terms with. Everything that we've hoped to accomplish since we finally stopped trying to tear each other apart. It will never be the same again… not if you deny me the information that could keep my children from suffering."

"Why can't you understand that I can't help you?"

"Because I know that you can." She grabbed her mother's hand, hoping that the touch would do something to spark the connection that they had. "Mom, I know that you probably don't know exactly who the person was that impregnated you, but you have to have some sort of idea. Something in my face, maybe before you gave me away… maybe now. Something that reminds you of him, the man who is my father."

"You're not being fair to me…"

"Well then maybe I'll just go and ask Luke."

"Don't you dare bring him in to this," Bobbie warned her daughter. "Luke feels horrible about what I did with my past, he might be the only person who feels worse about it than I do. He's always going through so many of his own problems that adding mine to his wouldn't be fair."

"I probably couldn't even find him if I wanted to," Carly muttered. Her uncle, although she rarely, if ever, had addressed him as such, had a habit of finding a way to avoid people for months at a time. It was a skill that Carly didn't exactly find herself inheriting. She couldn't stay away from people even when she tried.

"This is how it's going to be, then?" Bobbie could feel the connection that she and her daughter had established after years of hurt slipping away and there wasn't anything that she could do about it. Well, there was, but if Carly knew what it could bring to her family she would regret everything in the end.

"Only if you can't help me…"

"You don't realize just how much I am helping you by not telling you anything."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you could be setting yourself up for a big disappointment, one that could crush you both physically and emotionally. What happens if you meet this man and he doesn't accept you?"

"We've been through this before, mom," Carly rolled her eyes. "I don't give a damn if the man accepts me as his daughter, if he starts wanting me to understand a part of my history… all I want is for him to know that I'm alive and that he has two grandsons who he can help with in case they need something from a family member. That's it. I'm not looking for a relationship. I'm just looking for assurance."

"None of the people who could be your father…"

"So you admit that you have people in mind?"

"Don't change the subject. None of them are what I could consider father material."

"You weren't mother material when you gave me away…"

"Carly…"

"I didn't mean it like that, mom, and you know it. All I'm saying is that you're a different person now. You're a better person. Look at how well you managed to raise Lucas, even with your problems. That boy is a good kid deep down, even though you have him at some private school."

"He needs a good education to get a successful future in life."

"Damian got public schooling… Georgie and Dillon seem to be doing fine with it."

"That's true," Bobbie wondered where the conversation managed to get sidetracked, but if it kept her daughter off of the need to find out anything about her father, then Bobbie was all for it. "But a diploma from the school where Lucas is attending is a lot better looking on a college application than a diploma, even one where the person is the highest ranked student in the class, from Port Charles High."

"You wouldn't have made those choices with me if you would have kept me. That shows how good you've become as a mother. You're a great grandmother, too. And an Aunt. Mom, you care about your family. You would do anything for them."

"Yes, I would. I love every single member of my family and a whole lot of people who aren't… and if I could help you then you should be the first person to know that I would do it. But I can't…"

A short distance away, Damian and Maxie came walking back up from their short venture towards the docks. "Are you sure you left your phone on the counter?" Maxie wondered.

"The only place I was aside from the house was inside of Kelly's. Where else could it be?"

"You shouldn't be dropping things, you know how much trouble it can get you in."

"Believe me… I know that better than most people will ever know." The wallet. The stupid wallet incident that managed to get him incarcerated for over a week, that had him thinking that everything that he had worked for, both on a personal and professional level, was going to vanish into thin air like it was nothing. He didn't want to make such stupid mistakes again, but apparently he couldn't help it. "Besides, I'm sure my grandpa would just keep the phone if I did leave it there."

"And what if you didn't?"

"Then I'll just buy a new one…"

"Can I help…"

Damian saw Bobbie and Carly talking with one another in front of Kelly's. He put his arm out, halting Maxie in the process. "Maxie, be quiet please." Normally he would have thought nothing of the fact that the mother and daughter were speaking with one another, but the way that they looked at each other, Damian knew that something was wrong.

"What is it?" Maxie didn't appreciate being told to shut up, even though it was in a much nicer tone of voice. She silently demanded that she know what was going on, and she got her answer when she peered over Damian's shoulders.

"There's nothing that I can do to make you change your mind, is there?" Carly knew that it was a last ditch effort, that she was grasping at straws, but what other choices did she have?

"I'm sorry…"

"No, you're not," Carly shook her head as she adjusted her purse. "But if something happens to Michael or Morgan and we can't find any answers and we need something from my father and one of them ends up dead because you never told me the simple piece of information that I have every right to know… I'll hate you again, mom. And I will hate you more than I ever hated you when I first came to Port Charles. I don't want that, I know you don't, but you made the choice with your silence."

"Carly!"

"No, I'm done. You don't want to help, fine. We have nothing else to speak to each other about."

"Can I still see the boys?"

"You mean while they're healthy?" She was channeling the rage, and she knew it. A part of Carly's soul was telling her that she didn't need to be so venomous towards her mother, but it was a small part, the bigger part of Carly, the part that made her the loving mother of her sons, was telling her that her own mother was wrong. Telling her that Bobbie Spencer was making a choice that could put Michael and Morgan in jeopardy, and that was not something that Carly would ever be able to accept.

"What do you think that was all about?" Maxie whispered as softly as she could.

"I wish I knew… and I'm going to find out."

"I'm coming, too…"

"No," the young man said firmly. "I need to do this alone."

"Bobbie's my Aunt!"

"But she's having a problem with Carly. Who do you think Bobbie is going to think would understand her more?" Damian understood what it meant to have a problem with Carly better than Maxie could ever hope. Nobody should have even wanted to have a problem with Carly, because it usually involved lots of unpleasant yelling. "Please… let me try this alone."

"I don't like being pushed to the side. Not even by you."

"Five minutes?" Damian compromised. "Give me five minutes with Bobbie, Maxie. I want to help her."

"Fine…"

Damian silently gave his thanks to his girlfriend before making his way slowly from behind the hedges that gave him the cover that he needed. Bobbie was shaking, it was obvious that she was on the verge of crying. Damian had never see Bobbie like that before. It scared him.


	73. Emotionally Detached

Journeylove- I didn't like Casper at all… they were 'amusing,' but little more. Courtney deserves better than Jax… or just being alone. One of the two. For a second there you had me a bit puzzled… the first couple I saw was Jason/Gia, which could have happened… maybe. It didn't seem so unbelievable, and I went 'when did they hook up?' Then I saw Sonny and Emily and that made me realize that it was just your own fiction couples. Nothing wrong with that. Although, I will give you this: the idea of a Jason/Emily/Jax story scares the bloody hell out of me. Brook has something coming up soon. Yes, she does.

In a completely unrelated note: Today's episode is so emotionally draining that I'll probably just take a break… yeah…

Story-

He didn't know how he was going to approach her. He cared about Bobbie, but he'd never really needed to help her solve a problem before. What if she didn't want his help? There was really only one way to find out. "Bobbie?"

She jumped slightly, her nerves shot, not expecting anyone to see her. Slowly, Bobbie wiped away her tears, hoping that he wouldn't notice. "Hi, Damian. How are you?"

"Better than you're doing, apparently."

"What do you mean?"

"Bobbie…"

"I'm fine, Damian, really!" She knew that she was lying. But she was a Spencer. Wasn't it some sort of inherited trait that she be good at lying? Luke could do it. So could Carly. Why would it just skip her?

"I saw you with Carly."

"You did?" She lowered her eyes. She couldn't lie. Not if he had seen what had happened between her and her daughter. "What did you see?"

"You and Carly talking, quite passionately. I don't think you were discussing any sort of parties for Morgan's recovery, or what you were going to do for New Years Eve tomorrow. Bobbie…"

"You want to help, don't you?"

"You know me that well?"

"Everyone knows you that well," she stated. "At least everyone who takes the time to meet you and understand you. Most people wouldn't do that. They'd think that you were just some thug who came from Los Angeles because you found out who your father was. But we know better. We know how far that is from the truth."

"Thank you." There were reasons why Damian loved Bobbie Spencer in ways that he would love anyone else who would be his grandmother. She always knew what to say in order to make him feel better. For once, Damian wanted to be the one who could do the same for Bobbie. She didn't deserve to suffer as she was suffering. "I'm only going to ask you this question one time, Bobbie… but you need to understand that I'm here, right here, and I'm not going to go anywhere if you need me."

Knowing that she could trust the boy, a fact that she realized well before anyone else, save perhaps Elizabeth, Bobbie decided that she couldn't deal with the problem on her own. Mike was already dealing with plenty, and Damian was right, he was right there. She blurted out her problems, looking for something to help ease her pain. "Carly wants to know who her father is."

"I see…"

"But I don't want her to know who her father is."

"She has a right to know where she comes from, Bobbie. Everyone does. Sometimes it's different… like with Michael. But he has a right to know that the Quartermaine's are his birth family. If he chooses to identify with them, that is his choice… but denying him the information would be cruel and unfair."

"It's not that simple!" Nobody was being understanding of her. Why couldn't they see what she was going through? To her it was so obvious. The pain, the agony.

"Why does she want to know?"

"Because of what happened with Morgan. She's grateful that you could help the baby, we all are, but you're not Michael's blood relative, and neither is anyone else in the Corinthos family. We're not trying to say that you don't love him just as much as you would if he were blood, you might even love him more just to make him feel like he's a member of the family, but Carly's afraid that something could happen to Michael, or to her, and that it would depend on her father's side of the family helping."

"It's a valid point, Bobbie…" he understood where Carly was coming from, something that truly shocked him and made him more than a little afraid. Who would have thought that they would ever see eye to eye on something? His father would be celebrating more than his son's recovery from a potentially fatal disease. "Why don't you sit down?"

"I don't want to sit down…"

"Then keep on standing for as long as you can. The way your knees are shaking I'm only going to give you a few minutes before you just collapse from grief and stress. Then I'll have to pick you up and make sure that you're okay. Do us both a favor and just take a seat, please?"

"Fine…" Bobbie hated the fact that she was so worked up by what was going on, but it was such a huge part of her life, a life that started before Carly was even born. One that she wished she could just erase. One that she had tried to erase more times than she would care to admit. Taking a seat, she looked at the boy, who was also sitting. "Is that better?"

"Much, thanks." While she was taking a seat, Damian looked over to where Maxie was. She was watching intently. He hoped that she would keep her distance. Carly was a problem that he was much better suited to deal with than his girlfriend, even though the two had done battle before.

"What are you going to tell me, Damian? Are you going to tell me that I'm being selfish."

"You are… at least a little. I never thought that you would do something like this, Bobbie. I'm sure your reasons are good…"

"Finally someone else understands that!"

"But sometimes reasons aren't enough. We can't hide things forever, Bobbie. No matter how hard we try they are going to come out eventually." He realized that he was being somewhat hypocritical. Both he and Carly had sworn to each other that they would never speak of what happened to him. His argument lost some of the validity, but he could keep it to himself. He had to. It would destroy Carly and Sonny's marriage if the truth got out. Damian didn't want that. Even when he didn't care for Carly he never wanted her marriage to deteriorate because of him. "Carly's just trying to protect herself and her children."

"So am I!"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing…" Bobbie realized that she had said too much. She hoped that he was going to let it go, but she knew that it was just a false hope.

"Bobbie…"

"Carly's father… I can never be certain who it is, Damian, at least not without a blood test done on her and him like you did to prove to Sonny that you were his son. But… there were men who I know could be the possible fathers. And even one in particular who I saw in Carly's face when she was born."

"So you might know?"

"Forget I said anything." She grabbed his hand frantically. "I should have never said what I said. Now I'm just putting you in trouble, too…"

"What are you talking about?" Damian had never seen her act so nervous. Her eyes were welling up with tears again. "Bobbie, whatever you're going through, I can help you. I don't know how because I don't know what it is, but you need to tell me before it gets worse."

"You'll just tell Carly…"

"What if I promise not to?"

"Then you'd be lying," she muttered. "I know you, remember? You're honest. Too honest. Sometimes it's a good quality, and sometimes it isn't."

"I swear on my mother's grave that I will not tell Carly anything about what happened here unless it is absolutely necessary." A vow on Ana-Maria's grave was something that was not to be taken lightly. He'd never actually swore on her grave before, never thought he would.

She understood what it meant for him to say those words. She was touched that he would do something like that for her. It made her feel that she could trust him no matter what. "The man that I think it could be… he's become a much better man than he was when he used to come and…"

"You don't need to talk about your past with me, Bobbie." He knew about it, and while it was hard to believe he was more than willing to let the woman atone for her sins on her own. Everyone made mistakes, even him. Why should Bobbie Spencer have been any different? "Just tell me what you know."

"His name is John Durant…"

"The federal prosecutor?" How could Damian not know that name? In Port Charles, Sonny and Jason worried about Ric, but they also spoke of Durant. In the news, Durant was constantly in the headlines, on the television. He was likened as a hero. Sonny didn't care for him much.

"John was much wilder in those days. We both were. I tried not to feel anything for the men that… but there was something about John. Maybe it was because of his looks, because he came around so much. I didn't love him, but I could have if things would have been different."

"I get it… you didn't want to tell Carly about John Durant possibly being her father because you know how much of a risk that puts my father and Uncle Jason in…"

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"I won't… at least not in the family. He's stationed in New York, right?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"Going to find him… tomorrow…"

"Damian, you can't! You're Sonny Corinthos's son. Don't you realize just how much danger that puts you in? Besides, why do you want to bring him here?"

"I just want to see what he's like, Bobbie," Damian could see the risks that he was taking. But he didn't intend on announcing his last name, or even seeing the man. "Maybe he's not as bad as people think. Maybe he could love Carly, Michael and Morgan in a way that they deserve to be loved. If he can do that don't you think that they all have a right to have each other in their lives?"

"You're taking too big of a risk," Bobbie didn't agree with his idea. "I can't let you do it."

"I'll take Maxie with me. We'll fly in tomorrow, find Durant, talk to him, and fly out. She's the commissioner's daughter, Bobbie. She could make up some story about how she wanted to meet a man that her father looked up to."

"I can't stop you, can I?"

"If you don't want me to go… just say the word."

"I…" Bobbie tried to say it. Tried to tell him that she didn't want him to take the risk, but while a part of her was screaming inside for her to utter the words that would halt him from doing what he had planned on doing she found a bigger part of herself that didn't want to take the chance of Michael or Carly being hurt. Her daughter was right. If something happened and they needed Carly's father then it would be on her head. She couldn't deal with the responsibility. And even if something should have happened to her she knew that Damian or Maxie would know who she thought was Carly's father and they could find her.

"Bobbie?"

"Just promise me that you'll both be careful?" Bobbie asked, trying to smile.

"I'm a Corinthos, remember? Even if I tried to forget how to be careful I don't think my blood would let me."

Bobbie felt relieved that she had managed to get the secret that had threatened to boil over out in the open. Standing up, she started to walk away, but kissed Damian on the cheek before she moved passed him. "Thank you… for understanding both sides of the story."

"I'll call you when I find out something." He couldn't believe that he had gone from having no plans on New Years Eve to finding his Stepmother's biological father. Only in Port Charles could something like that happen. But he didn't mind that it had fallen to him. Bobbie was trusting him and he knew that he couldn't fail.


	74. Old Faithful

Morgan Household-

Dillon was the type of young man who was always worried about the people that he cared about. Compared to his mother it was a trait that he wondered where it came from, certainly not from Tracy herself. Perhaps it was inherited from his all-compassionate grandmother. Lila had taught the boy so much in the short few years that they were together. Lessons that Dillon would never forget, that he would try and teach to his own children. They wouldn't have the benefit of having Lila in their lives like he did, but he was going to make sure that, if he had any children, they would be the type of children that would do their great grandmother proud.

But there was only so much worrying a boy like Dillon could do. Even though he cared about so many people and wanted them all to be safe and happy he knew that he didn't have the power to ensure that it happened. Nobody did. The best he could do was be there for them when they needed it. He knew what Damian had been through the day before, and he chose not to push himself onto his friend, but Dillon couldn't lie to himself. There was a part of him that was hurt that his best friend had yet to even seek any sort of help from Dillon. When Lila died, Damian was right there with an open ear. Did he not think that Dillon would do the same thing?

Dillon did realize that his best friend was a private individual. Always willing to help out everyone else, yet forever against seeking out help himself. It was that trait that made him an obvious Corinthos. Sonny and Dillon weren't close, but Sonny had a reputation that was impossible to not be aware of, and even now that Dillon was living only a few feet away he could see just how true that reputation was. Sonny needed to be in control of everything. When that control slipped, so did Sonny's grasp on reality. Nobody ever spoke of it, but Dillon was an observant teenager. One needed to be able to see everything if they were to be a good director. It was a rule.

Despite his vision, Dillon found that making that vision a reality was much harder than he had anticipated. Even with the new equipment that he had at his disposal, even with the storyboards that were plotted out in his head and a few that were actually on pieces of paper in his room, Dillon knew that something was missing. He didn't know what, and that was something that irked him tremendously. Steven Spielberg never had such problems, did he? Then again, Dillon didn't have the millions of underlings that the other directors had. He was young. A fledgling. It all fell onto him to make everything happen. Then and only then would he establish the credit that he needed to make it in the world. Dillon understood the way that the movie world worked, and he wasn't about to fail. His dream was at hand, if he lost it then he didn't deserve anything.

It was with that gusto and burning passion for filmmaking that Dillon was able to silence the inner turmoil that came from trying to help his friend, if only momentarily. An ample distraction was still a distraction, and should Damian walk into the penthouse needing Dillon's help the reluctant Quartermaine heir would not hesitate in giving his friend just that.

Hearing the door open, Dillon stopped looking over the footage that he had recorded the day before, wondering if he had in some way jinxed himself. There were more than a few people who walked into the Morgan penthouse without knocking, something that Jason and Courtney didn't seem to mind. It was a change from the Quartermaine household, complete with people who had to be announced as to their arrival.

Dillon realized that the person that was walking into the house was not his best friend, but rather his cousin. "Late night?"

Jason's blank eyes peered directly into Dillon's soul. The boy was his responsibility now, and while Jason had been rather hesitant to even accept Dillon as a part of his home life in the beginning his mind had long since been changed. Dillon was good for Courtney, good for Damian, and quite possibly good for him as well. "You shouldn't be asking me questions like that, Dillon. You know better."

"You told me when I first came here that you wouldn't give me a job in Sonny's organization." Dillon remembered that altercation very vividly. He was just a young new face in town, looking to do something that would get him out of the shadows of his rich, socialite family. The only member of that family who had ever truly managed to somehow break from being a Quartermaine was Jason himself. So why wouldn't Dillon in turn try and emulate the success of his elder cousin? "At first I wasn't very happy with you about that…"

"Which is why you went and started working for Alcazar."

"Something that actually ended up helping you and Sonny out at the very end, didn't it?"

"You did a good thing when you helped us find Damian and Courtney, Dillon. Nobody, least of all me, is going to tell you that what you did wasn't good, but that doesn't excuse the fact that you were working for a mobster. It turned out in our favor once, but how can any of us be so sure that we'll always be that lucky?" Jason never wanted any of the children to follow in his footsteps. The last thing Jason needed on his conscience was the fact that he had set some sort of foolish example that what he did was 'cool' by the standards of the youth. Damian and Dillon weren't as impressionable as Michael and Morgan, but there was still some sort of impact that could be had because of the examples that he and Sonny set.

"I know, Jason." Dillon nodded his head. "Believe me, I know how much danger I was in…"

"I don't think you do." In fact, Jason was sure that Dillon was completely in the dark at how often his life was put in danger. All it took was one crossed wire and the people that Jason worked against wouldn't have any problem in ending a teenager's life.

"Would you please let me finish what I was going to say?" Dillon said firmly, for once actually attempting to stand up against Jason Morgan, something that he thought he would never have the nerve to do. "I didn't like it then, Jason, when you turned me down, so I went to the nearest available person that fit the bill. It was incredibly stupid and I shouldn't have done it. I should have listened to you and I didn't. You were looking out for me and you didn't have to. You had no reason to even want me to stay alive, but you tried to steer me in a path that would have kept me safe. And for that I'm always going to be grateful, but I don't think I've ever actually thanked you for it."

"You're welcome." Jason was touched by the sincerity in his young cousin's voice. "But you're wrong… I did have a reason for wanting to keep you alive."

"Really? What reason was that? Was it because you could see the potential that I had for greatness?"

"Lila." Whenever Jason said her name there was both a sense of pride and sadness in his voice that he knew he wouldn't be able to hide if he tried. "She cared about you from the moment you were born, Dillon, the same way that she cared about all of us. It would have crushed her to bury you. I couldn't live with myself if I had knowingly caused such pain on her."

"You know what, it's funny… my mom, even my brother, they would always comment about how you abandoned the family and that you weren't ever going to come back. But Lila was different. Even though she might have kept it to herself it was easy to see that she always believed in you, maybe more than she believed in anyone else."

"Jase…"

Jason turned around the moment he recognized Carly's voice. He could tell that there was something wrong. "Carly, what is it? Did something happen to Morgan again?"

"No…" she leaned her head against his body. If anyone even saw it they would not question what it meant. She loved Jason in ways that she would never love any other person, but at the same time Jason was not the person that she was in love with. "Just tell me that everything is going to be okay…"

"You need to tell me what to do so I can fix it, Carly."

"I don't think you can fix it, Jason. I don't know if anyone has that power. Not even you."

Dillon felt the wave of discomfort wash over his body. The bond between Carly and Jason was unspoken of yet completely capable of surviving anything and everything that could have tried to break it. "I'm just going to go into my room and… listen to some music or something."

Upon realizing that Dillon was in the room, Carly backed away instinctively. She hated showing herself at her most vulnerable state around people that she didn't complete trust. She didn't hate Dillon, in fact she was rather fond of him, but that didn't mean that she trusted him in the way that she trusted Jason or Courtney.

Jason was surprised at himself. He'd forgotten that his cousin was in the room as well. It only showed how quick Jason was at forgetting everything around him and focusing only on the person who needed his help. When that person was Carly it was even more awe-inspiring to see how quickly Jason switched modes.

When he heard the door shut he was certain that it was safe to speak, but he lowered the amplitude of his voice just in case Dillon was trying to listen in. "Are you going to tell me what it is that I can't fix so that I can try?"

"You would try… wouldn't you?" Carly said with a soft laugh. That was why she loved Jason as much as she did. He never gave up, especially on her. He had plenty of times where he could have. She'd given him so many chances where it would have been perfectly understandable for Jason to just walk away from Carly and never look back, but even if he tried he would always end up being there for her. That kind of loyalty was something that Carly cherished but knew that she could never hope to emulate herself.

"I always try to help you, Carly. You know that."

"But sometimes you can't…"

"I hate it when I can't."

"So do I…" she lowered her eyes, finding the strength to continue to express her desires and her regrets. It was so hard to keep on doing it. She was already emotionally numb. "I'm trying to find out who my real father is."

Jason had feared that the day would come when Carly would actually get the drive to find the answer to that most obvious question. He knew how irrational she could get, and depending on the motivation that she had for seeking out the answers that she wanted it could have been something very dangerous for everyone involved. Carly's plans had a very high rate of backfiring and putting everyone in danger, even Jason and Carly themselves.

Carly knew what the silence meant. "You don't think I should go look for him, do you?" Of all the people that she wanted to have her back, Jason was the one that she needed the most. Even more than her own mother. Without Jason's support Carly knew that she couldn't do anything. She needed that support. It was what helped her get up in the morning.

"I don't want you to get hurt."

"Why does everyone keep on saying that?" She wondered. "Everyone tells me that I'm going to get hurt. I'm not looking for a relationship, Jason! I just want to know who the man is, maybe have a meal with him, tell him about his grandchildren. That's it. If I see him a few times a year, if he sends the kids a Christmas present, great. If we never see each other again at least I'll know who he is in case I need to find him again."

"You don't believe that any more than I do, and you know it."

"What do you mean?"

"You can keep on telling yourself over and over again that you don't want a relationship with your father, Carly, but deep down you know that you do. Who doesn't? You've never met this man who you are related by blood to. Maybe you're not conscious of it, but in some part of your being you're looking for a man who you can hug, who will tell you that everything is going to be all right, who will say how much he loves you."

"Maybe you're right…" he was right, even if she refused to say so with complete certainty, she knew he was right. Jason was almost always right. One of his best qualities as well as one of his most infuriating was how sure of himself he was. "But the only reason I'm even doing this is in case I need him for something or Michael does…"

"You're letting your mind wander…"

"I'm protecting my children, Jason!" Carly almost shouted. "How can you look at me and tell me that I'm doing something wrong when I have the wellbeing of Michael and Morgan in my head. That's the main reason why I'm going to look for him. Not for me, for them. Are you going to tell me that you wouldn't do the same exact thing if you were Michael and Morgan's parents?"

"You're right…" Jason's voice was soft. Carly's words cut into him. He was Michael's father once, and aside from the time he had spent with Courtney it was the happiest time of his life. "This would help them and if they needed it I would make sure that they got it."

"Jase… I didn't mean… you know how I get when I worry about my sons. I lash out at the nearest person, even when they don't deserve it."

"It's all right, Carly. I understand."

"Can I ask you one last favor?"

"What is it?"

She hugged him as she let her emotions run out of her body. "Just tell me that everything's going to be all right…"


	75. Forged Bonds

Kelly's-

Brook Lynn Ashton really did not understand what she was getting in to when it came to living around her paternal family again. She was a baby when she left Port Charles the first time. She couldn't remember any of them aside from a few names and maybe a faint memory or two, specifically of Lila. Brook couldn't understand how she could remember someone that she had barely met a few times. It helped with the belief that Lila was something special. Someone with a soul so instantly touching that even if you were only around her for a second you remembered who she was for the rest of your life.

But Lila was gone, and Brook felt that hole in her life just like every other member of the family. Even though they were all together again, more of less, for the first time, it didn't help any. Her parents were still arguing with one another, mostly about Brook herself and the choices that were made concerning her upbringing. Ned swore that she deserved better treatment than Lois was giving her. And then there was Tracy… who was a story unto herself. Brook knew that she and her grandmother would never be the type of people who got together and talked about problems. Even being in the same room with Tracy was a trial.

There was one thing that Brook could not understand: how different her father was. She remembered him quite well, vividly even. He was always so kind generous, willing to do anything for his 'Princess.' She loved that about her father. She loved her father. It wasn't unexpected. Why shouldn't she have? She missed having Ned around and she thought that with the sudden immersion that she had in Port Charles once more that she could get the time that she had missed out on back.

They had spent a lot of time together since she arrived on Christmas Eve, but very little of it was 'quality time.' A few meals here and there, a late night conversation or two, but they never talked about their relationship. Why couldn't Ned just talk about himself? She wanted to know how he was, but he would always end up avoiding the subject. It wasn't fair. Ned was her father, she didn't deserve to have him be something of a stranger.

It was when the Quartermaine household was filled to the brim with the sounds of uproar for the millionth time that Brook took it upon herself to get the hell out of dodge before she was driven insane. Everyone in the family swore that it was because Jason wooed Dillon away that the young man had chosen to leave the mansion. At first Brook was willing to go with that suggestion, but shortly after she realized that Dillon probably just wanted to get away from all the madness. And who could blame him? Certainly not her.

Since she had only been in town for a few days and had yet to remember everything that she had seen there were not many choices that Brook had when it came to finding some sort of distraction from the problems of her life. The one place that sprung into her mind was the restaurant that Dillon had constantly said he hung around. She'd been there once with him and his girlfriend. She'd seen better places in her times, being around the world had its perks, but there was a certain degree of charm that came with the small town diner. Plus, it had a jukebox, which was a quick way to get on her good side. The music that was played on the radio was always so empty of meaning. Nothing but commercialism. Jukebox music was the music that had soul, the music that she loved. Music like her father used to play, before he sold out.

Walking in, Brook saw that nobody she knew was in the restaurant. It didn't surprise her, since she could count the amount of non-blood relatives that she knew on two hands and could shorten the count considerably if she thought about those that she would want to talk with. Carly Corinthos, for example, was not on that list. But it wasn't all well and good. Brook wanted a friend, something that she really didn't have. It was hard to make longstanding connections with people when she was always going around from place to place with whatever band her mother was promoting. Most of the bands didn't have members who had children, let alone ones that they would bring on a tour. Brook was special, but nobody ever asked her if it was the kind of special that she wanted.

Instantly, the young beautiful siren found herself pulled toward the music making machine, as if it were her salvation. Without many people in the restaurant she could be free of feeling guilt over picking a song that they wouldn't like. Besides, who didn't like Heart? Popping in a quarter, Brook Lynn selected one of the longstanding group's signature songs, their first number one hit. She'd met them once or twice before, at concerts with more than one group. Ann and Nancy were so cool and they didn't give in to the trends. They played the music they wanted and knew that it would speak for itself.

Besides, Brook could relate with the song. She had dreams, too. Dreams of a happy family, a boy that she could be friends with, that she could love. Everything that she wanted, and all it seemed like was, to paraphrase the song in question, dreams that went on when she closed her eyes.

Taking a seat near the jukebox, Brook placed her bag over the side of the chair and sat down, hoping that the music would help drown out her problems. Music was often the only thing that she could depend on to make her happy. Much like her father it was her salvation, but Ned had lost the way. She still loved her father, but she couldn't help but feel pity for him.

"Seems to me like you've got a longing for a Prince who doesn't hide his face from dreams in the mist…"

Brook laughed at the corny line, but understood the context. She was surprised to see Damian. "Where'd you come from?"

"The back."

"Do you work here?" She would get another chuckle out of that. The son of Sonny Corinthos, racketeer and general rich person, working at a diner. Yes, that was something worth a good laugh.

"I help out from time to time. Sometimes doing things that involve washing a dish or two… other times saving someone's life when they have a seizure on the floor. Not that the food caused the seizure. You can still eat the food here. Grandpa cooks well enough."

"How's Morgan?"

"He came home yesterday afternoon. I saw the balloons that you got him… not at the hospital, but when I got home and he was there. They're really colorful. I'm sure he loved them. Thank you for doing that."

"No problem," she blushed at the compliment. She wasn't used to blushing. "I'm just really glad that he's all right. You know, I think you should get something, too. I mean, you're the one who saved his life, right?"

"Only in the most technical way possible," Damian finished wiping the soap off his hands and tossed the paper towels into the nearest garbage. "I only gave him the blood that he needed to kick his immunity level back up. The doctor's made sure that he was stable, and really, Morgan's the one who fought to stay alive. He's a Corinthos and a Spencer… I'm not exactly sure if such a combination should have been allowed by cosmic law, but it must have slipped past them."

"You're funny… I didn't know you were funny."

"I have a few moments here and there when I get a comedic comment coming from my mouth. Trust me, I'm not as funny as I'd like to think I am. In fact, when compared to your Uncle Dillon… hell, I'm nothing."

"It's so weird…"

"What?"

"The fact that he's my uncle. He's only a few years older than me. If we grew up together we'd probably end up being more like brother and sister, or at least cousins. I hope he doesn't expect me to call him 'Uncle Dillon,' because that's pretty much the last thing he'll ever hear me call him." Brook didn't see herself giving such a term of seniority to someone who she could go to school with.

"I would…"

"You're lying."

Damian shook his head, "No, really, I would. And I do. My Aunt Courtney's barely a few years older than me, but she's my aunt."

"Don't you mean 'Tia?'"

"Someone's taken basic level Spanish. It doesn't matter what I call her, if I use the Spanish way, or the English way. I guess because I'm here… in New York, I'm not using the more ethnic term. Back home… I mean, Los Angeles… I would use 'Tio' and 'Tia.' It's complicated… I know."

"Can… can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did you manage it?" Brook turned her blue eyes and looked up at him. She didn't know why she was asking someone that she barely knew, but there was something about him. She could see the sincerity in him. Nobody who played the piano could be bad. Or at least that's what she was telling herself over and over. "How did you somehow get connected with these people who you never met?"

"They're my family, Brook," Damian finally took a seat next to her. He could see that she was troubled by something. "Even though I didn't know my father or any of my family here it didn't change the fact that they were. And don't get me wrong… it wasn't easy. Especially at first. I went through a long period of time where I hated my father, deep down I did. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to see past my preconceptions and appreciate Sonny Corinthos for the man that he truly was."

"Why did you hate him? Because he left your mom?"

"Because he lied…"

"But you would want your parents together, wouldn't you?" Brook thought that was what every child wanted, at least on some level. "If you could bring your mom to Port Charles and be with Sonny again, you'd do it, wouldn't you?"

"My mother's dead, Brook. She died when I was fourteen."

"I'm sorry… that was stupid of me."

"Don't apologize. You didn't know. Actually, I'm kind of grateful that you didn't know. Sometimes I worry about all the people around me knowing everything about me. I never had that problem before. I was always sort of pushed aside, but within a few days of being in Port Charles I was suddenly the person of the hour… apparently they didn't take into account the fact that I was moving to the other side of the country would be enough to keep me occupied."

Brook couldn't believe that he was being so nice about it. If her parents had died she would have been angry at people for bringing it up. Why was he able to do that? What kind of person was he? She wanted to know how his mother died, but she didn't want to ask. She didn't want to keep being insensitive, unkind. Lois didn't raise her that way.

Seeing that she was silent again, Damian spoke once more, "You know, to answer your question, no, I wouldn't. Even if my mom and dad were both alive still I wouldn't want them to get together. And that includes even if my dad didn't have Carly, Michael and Morgan in his life. They didn't love each other, Brook. I wasn't conceived out of passion, lust, or anything else. If my parents were both alive and if they cared about one another I would want them together, but based on what happened… I know that it wouldn't be worth it."

"I want mine to get back together…" before she knew it, a single tear was rolling down her face. "I know it sounds stupid, Damian, because that's something that only little kids should want… but I do. I wish my parents could get back together and that they could just be with each other and be there for me."

"They're always going to be there for you… and quite possibly for each other." Damian grabbed a napkin and handed it over to Brook. "They're your parents, Brook. You're going to be the link that will keep them together for the rest of their lives. I know that what you want might seem impossible, and it could be… but don't ever let yourself think that they wouldn't move heaven and earth for you."

"When'd you get so smart?" She wondered as she wiped away the tear, noticing that a few were threatening to approach in addition to the first.

"I had to grow up quick…"

"See? I just keep on saying stupid things."

"You're not saying anything stupid, Brook Lynn. You're asking questions, and the questions you're asking aren't questions I'm not used to hearing."

"So… you think that everything is going to be all right?"

"With the Quartermaine's… you never know." He gave an uneasy chuckle, not wanting to dash her hopes, but certainly not wanting to get them up only to have them be crushed by things beyond her control. "All I can tell you is that you have people here who care about you. People like your parents, like Dillon, be he your uncle, surrogate brother, cousin, or just some kid with crazy hair and an unhealthy obsession for movies…"

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"If I need help with something… can you help me?"

"If I can help you with something, Brook, I'll be the first one to offer it. And even if it's not something I can help you with, I'll at least try to listen. I can promise you that."

"Thanks," she smiled meekly as she reached over and hugged him for a moment. She wasn't foolish enough to believe that her problems would wash away, but at least she knew that she had help.


	76. Let's Make A Deal

Note: This could very well be the last chapter of the story to be updated for some time. It might not be, in fact, right now my word is acting just fine whereas yesterday it wasn't letting me do anything at all… but in case the bug does return I just thought I would let you people know that.

Story-

Scorpio Household-

Maxie doubted that he was aware of it, but there were so many things that he did which drove her crazy. He always had the best intentions, she was certain of that, but that didn't mean that he could just cast her off like she was nothing. Bobbie was a member of her family as well, she had been longer than she had been a part of Damian's life. What gave him the right to just say that she couldn't help her own aunt? Even though Tony and Bobbie were no longer together it didn't change the fact that Maxie and Georgie both still thought of Bobbie as someone that they could depend on, someone that they could get help from. To be told that she couldn't do anything… it drove her furious.

She wondered silently to herself if he was showing her a part of himself that he had tried to keep from her. If there was some darkness that was swirling around that loving face. He'd been through so much in such a short amount of time. He'd watched his mother die with his own eyes, he'd nearly been killed on more than one occasion. How was it possible for someone to keep the positive outlook in life that he had with everything that went on around him. Was it all some sort of lie? Was the Damian that she saw truly the farthest thing from the Damian that was real?

"No…" she whispered to herself, trying to keep the demons of doubt at bay. Even with everything that he had been through he was still the same person that she loved. She might have been upset with him but she couldn't let that make her think that he had changed, let alone become someone that she didn't love. The only thing that was keeping her from going insane was the fact that, at least on some level, she knew he was right. The problem that needed to be addressed involved his family. His step-mother. Someone that Maxie couldn't stand.

In his short time in Port Charles, Damian had become as close to an expert on dealing with Carly Corinthos as he could ever hope to be. He knew what a burden the woman could be on the people that she loved. Maxie knew that it was something that she could never truly understand. She gave him the time that he asked for because if anyone had a chance at helping Bobbie in that particular area, it was him.

Maxie couldn't get the image of Bobbie walking away out of her head. She'd seen Bobbie Spencer in a variety of mental and emotional states, but Maxie had never seen Bobbie look so crushed like she had when she walked away from the tables outside of Kelly's. A part of her wanted to run over and just give the woman a hug and a shoulder to cry on, but it appeared to Maxie that the role had already been taken. He really wasn't a bad person, sometimes he just made decisions that were really stupid. But who didn't? If anyone should have been unable to question motives it was her. How many times had she done things that she shouldn't have done? That she knew she shouldn't have done but she did them regardless? Too many times for her to even want to admit to anyone.

"So I was thinking that maybe we could get together and watch a movie tomorrow night…"

"Huh?" Maxie looked up the stairs that she had taken a seat on. Her sister, her little sister, her best friend at the top.

"For tomorrow, you know, New Years Eve. We can't go out and get drunk, only one of us is of legal drinking age… but I guess he could just buy us the alcohol."

"He wouldn't do that…"

Georgie snickered, "I know, I was kidding. I don't even want to think about drinking. Ever. Too many people here have shown me that it's not something I ever want to do…"

"People like me?"

Walking down the stairs, Georgie finally took a seat next to her sister. "You're not that type of person anymore, Maxie. That's what makes you such a great woman. You were strong enough to fight what you knew was a problem. How many people have we seen that never do that? They just keep on drinking. Look at all the people who get checked into the hospital because their liver shut down? What's the usual cause of that? Too much drinking. You're smarter and better at taking care of yourself."

"You always know what to say…"

"I've written a book," Georgie commented coyly. "I've called it 'how to deal with your sister when she does things that just make you want to slap her.' When I finish high school I'll look in to getting it published. It might be a best seller."

"If you publish that book I will never speak to you again."

"Don't worry, I gave you an alias."

"Really?" Maxie was enticed by the idea. "What is it?"

"Taxi…"

"And you're supposed to be the smart one?"

Georgie was glad that she was making her sister laugh. Something about Georgie made her completely capable of reading Maxie's emotions like they had big bold letters. At that moment Maxie was showing that she was angry about something, but Georgie couldn't tell exactly what.

"About New Years…" Maxie changed the subject, fixating on Georgie's original comment. "I've got plans."

"Since when?"

"Twenty minutes ago?" Maxie shrugged her shoulders. What was she going to tell her sister? She didn't even know exactly why Damian insisted on taking her to New York. Maybe he was trying to be romantic.

"Oh," Georgie was somewhat disappointed by the fact that she couldn't spend the New Year with people that she wanted to spend it with. She was always so used to not having her mother and Mac around to enjoy it with, but the fact that Maxie wasn't going to be there either made it all the more saddening in her eyes. "Well, what are you going to do?"

"Damian's taking me to New York… I think."

"I don't think he's going to do something like that."

The teenage sisters looked into the kitchen, their father standing in clothes that were actually casual. A day off from work, maybe? It was certainly a rarity to see Mac Scorpio out of the business suits that he had become accustomed to wearing since he became the Commissioner. He'd never say anything about it, but Mac missed the days where he could just be a private investigator.

"Dad…"

"No, Maxie," Mac shook his head rapidly. "I'm willing to give your boyfriend the benefit of the doubt in some things, but I am not about to let him take you out of town on New Years Eve…"

"But it's New York. We're going to fly there in Sonny's jet."

"You think I'm going to let you gallivant around the country just because your boyfriend's father happens to be rich?" The last time that Maxie was in the jet was because she had almost been killed. Mac was more than a little cautious about letting her do things that could put her in danger. He was her father, he loved her, he made sure that she was as safe as she could possibly be.

"We have to go!"

"Oh, I'm sure I'm going to love hearing the explanation for this one…" Mac rested his body against the side of the doorway. "Tell me, Maxie, why do you 'have' to go with him?"

"Because…"

"Not good enough."

"Because we're going to see the ball drop on Times Square…"

"You can watch that on the television. Dick Clark, or even that guy on MTV that you used to love so much a few years back."

"I'm over Carson Daly, thanks," Maxie grumbled. She'd had a lot of stupid celebrity crushes in her past that she wasn't proud of. There was nothing wrong with them, but it made her seem like she was just a little girl.

"Dad… why can't she go?" Georgie didn't want to get in the middle of the argument, but she believed that Maxie had a good reason for needing to go with him. What if it was to keep him safe?

"Because…"

"Not good enough," Georgie countered her father with the same logic that he had used on her sister.

"You don't get to do that!" Mac exclaimed. "You're both the children, I'm your father…"

"I'm an adult!" Maxie stood up.

"The pajamas with teddy bears that you still wear to bed would beg to differ…"

"Stop that, dad!" Maxie said angrily. "Please, don't fight me on this. I'm going to go with him regardless of if you like it or not. It's just New York. He has a good reason for wanting to take me."

"You haven't given me a good reason…"

"Because I don't know what it is."

"Then what makes it such a good reason?" Mac knew that she wasn't going to back down, but until he had something that guaranteed her safety there was no way he was going to back down either.

"Maybe he wants to surprise her?" Georgie suggested. "You know, like their first date, with the piano. He's good at surprises. Do you think he'll propose?"

"Don't go and get any ideas in her your sister's head, Georgie," Mac growled. The last thing he needed to start the New Year was the prospect of a criminal for a son-in-law, or at least a criminal through relation.

"I thought you trusted him…" Maxie said softly. "I thought that after everything that he's been through, both because of me and for me, that you would know that he cared about me."

"I don't doubt that he loves you, Maxie, nor do I doubt that you feel the same way about him, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I'm still going to worry about you."

"What if I promise to be home by the end of the night?"

"You just said that you wanted to watch the ball drop…"

"I was just throwing out whatever came in to my head, dad. The ball was the first thing, so I just blurted it out. I don't think he wants to stay the whole night. He doesn't like big cities…"

"He's from Los Angeles!" Mac argued with Maxie, giving her the small facts about her boyfriend that Maxie had apparently chosen to omit. She did that from time to time, too frequently for Mac's tastes. She'd done it so often with Kyle…

"And you should hear the stories that he tells about that place. He hated living there…"

"It's true," Georgie nodded. "He's stated a few times how much he hated all the smog and poverty…"

"Who are you trying to help here?" Mac questioned his younger daughter.

"Dad… it's just New York. How many times have we been to New York. You let me go with Dillon to a play in New York as long as I promised to be home and not stay in the city, remember?" She had to fight for that victory against her father tooth and nail, but she had won.

"And you said you trusted them both…" Maxie grabbed on to the chance that her sister was giving her. "I know him, dad, he won't stay the whole night. We'll probably leave in the morning… I'll even make sure that I call you a few times."

"Once every two hours…"

"Deal."

"You win, Maxie," Mac gave in to the pressure of both his daughters. "But I'm warning you right now, if anything goes wrong with this, anything at all, I'm holding him responsible." Knowing the Corinthos family there were plenty of things that could have gone wrong. Mac just hoped that it wouldn't be a feeling of déjà vu. He knew that both himself and Sonny did not want to think that their children were at risk. Not again.


	77. Take Caution

Note: No update yesterday, because word was being a bitch, as I have reported in the past. Since I don't know how frequently this is going to happen, I won't be posting two or more chapters depending on how many days I missed, since I can't work on the story if word doesn't open. So, one chapter, but be happy…

Journeylove- I'm sorry about I-search papers, I used to hate doing them when I had to do them, now, with my love of writing, which I didn't have when I was in high school, I'd probably love it, but then… good lord. Also sorry about the family evils. It happens. We can't avoid it, so we shouldn't even try. I find that ignoring them all is a very good way of dealing with things. Your couples, while interesting, still scare me. I've always liked Durant. I know he's an evil bastard, but I like the fact that he is an evil bastard, so I don't really want to see him go. I didn't want to see Faith go either, that made me sad. As for Dillon and Georgie, I was highly disappointed in both them and the writers. They have sex to get their minds off of a little kid being 'dead' which is highly selfish, and the way the scene was written we didn't get much in the way of 'action.' Yet, when Casper, or LoLo, or Carson make with the sex we get this long, sometimes nauseating, montage? That didn't make me happy.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

The problem with Brook Lynn had been taken care of. They spoke for a few more minutes before she agreed that it would probably be in her best interest to give everyone in her family another chance. The Quartermaine's may have done some crazy things to one another, but Damian was quick to see that in their own strange way they still loved each other as much as any 'normal' family would, sometimes he thought that they might have loved each other a little more.

With the crisis that he had been unexpectedly thrust into already dealt with, Damian had to contend with the other issue… finding Carly's father, or the man that Bobbie thought was Carly's father. He thought about it and he knew how ironic it was. Three months ago he would have never even fathomed doing something that would help Carly out. Even though she wasn't the one who benefited completely from the idea that he and Bobbie had managed to hammer out she still got her fair share of the spillover perks. She'd have a father, if it turned out that Durant was her father.

He even thought about that very statement. If Durant was her father. The federal prosecutor, father of the wife of a mob king. It screamed of the irony that seemed to swirl around their lives. The cosmic playwrights must have been having a wonderful time crafting the varied adventures of his family and there was nothing he could do about it. Well, that wasn't entirely true… he could just not go to New York. Not look for Durant. He could save himself and his family the chance of the great grief that would come from placing that man in their family… but he couldn't do it. He had come to Port Charles to find his father, it would be unjust to deny Carly the same chance, even if it didn't turn out as well as it had for him.

Standing in the doorway, he froze when he saw Carly and Sonny together. It wasn't the first time they'd been together, but now there was something about it that made him worry. What if she knew what he was planning? He'd promised Bobbie that he wouldn't say anything to anyone aside from her and maybe Maxie about the mission that he had been trusted with. He even swore on the grave of his mother. But he wasn't good at lying, or at least he tried to tell himself that he wasn't good at lying.

"Getting the last few days of your vacation and putting them to good use?" Carly wondered, cautiously trying to decipher the strange vibe that she was getting from her step-son. She said nothing, because she wasn't sure if she was just second guessing the boy as she had done many times in the past.

"Well… yeah, I guess you could say that. School's starting on Monday… plus…"

"Plus what?" Sonny hated it when the boy paused between his words. It usually meant that something wasn't good.

Damian was well aware of the fact that he had yet to tell anyone about his internship. It was the best distraction that he had. "I know that you probably weren't expecting me to say this for at least a year or two… but…"

"You're not going to move out again, are you?"

"No, of course not," there were no plans for him to move out of the house, as it was he probably wasn't going to get that much time inside of the house anymore, so the point was somewhat moot. "I got offered an early internship at GH… I took the offer."

Carly understood what that meant for him. "Congratulations." She truly meant the statement. She wanted him to be successful, now more than ever. She'd seen his compassion so many times, but only recently as she able to see it without the haze of hatred blocking her eyes to the obvious.

Sonny beamed with pride as he often did when his children did things that were extraordinary. He'd already had plans of 'borrowing' Dillon's new camera to record Morgan's first steps. Or just buying his own. A better one. But Morgan wasn't the subject of praise at that moment, no, it was the young man that was standing a few feet away. "I'm so happy for you."

"I didn't want to take it at first," Damian admitted, still feeling that he didn't truly deserve the opportunity that was being presented to him. Ever modest and humble, he somehow doubted that he ever would feel completely comfortable with the chance that he had been given. "I didn't think that I was ready…"

"Why didn't you talk to me about it?" Sonny wondered. "If you were worried about yourself being prepared I could have told you that you've been ready for this since… well, since I've known you."

"I'm not nearly as stable as I like to make you people believe, dad…" the day before in the church only showed how much of him was still an emotionally scarred and hurt little boy. "I was afraid of what could happen. Afraid of making the wrong decisions, ones that could end up costing someone their life."

"You can't save everyone, Damian," Carly said supportively. "No doctor is ever that good."

"But I wouldn't even be a doctor… I still won't be. I'll just help when I'm needed, doing a few things, bandaging up patients, maybe checking their vitals. Nothing big. I hope."

"What made you change your mind?" Sonny didn't know that his boy was so insecure about that which he commonly believed to be Damian's 'calling.' Sonny realized that there was still so much that he didn't know about his son, but he thought that he knew enough, and he was almost certain that Damian knew what he was doing, knew what he wanted. Apparently Sonny was wrong.

"Morgan… when I saw him in the hospital. When I was begging him to stay alive… I knew that I needed to do something to make sure that things like that didn't happen to anyone else."

"We were all scared, son… but are you sure you're doing this for the right reason?"

"I have to do an internship eventually… part of the requirement. The sooner I get it done the better. Besides, I'll be working with Monica and Dr. Quartermaine…"

"Maybe you should try and work with someone else," Carly muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just…" she shook her head. "I don't think that they're going to just try and use you for their business. I'm almost certain that they'll start plugging you for information on Michael, trying to use you to get him to go visit them more often…"

"They wouldn't do that…"

She laughed, "You really don't know the Quartermaine's as well as you want to think you do, Damian. Dillon and Jason are easily the two best members that have ever come out of that family aside from Lila herself. Alan and Monica love Michael, but the Quartermaine's are not his family… they never have been."

"Carly, I wouldn't do anything that involved Michael's safety and happiness without at least consulting you about it. You should know me better than that. If Alan and Monica continually grill me for information on Michael then I will be the first one to call them on it, even if it costs me the internship." He'd heard the stories of how Michael's birth father wanted to use him as a pawn in the family. Michael was his little brother now and Damian wasn't going to let anyone put him in any danger, not even people with money like the Quartermaine's. He would make sacrifices, plenty of them, to keep Michael and Morgan safe.

"Just promise me that you'll be careful around them, okay?"

"You're looking out for me now?" He grinned. "Is this a late Christmas present that you've been waiting to spring on me?"

"If it is I won't tell you," Carly stood up, wiping the wrinkles smooth on her jeans. "I'm going to check up on Morgan…"

Sonny watched his wife walk up the stairs. "I didn't notice it before… at least not until right now. You and Carly…"

"What about us?"

"You're… friends. I mean, I noticed that you weren't trying to kill each other anymore, but I didn't see until right now that you actually care for one another. I don't know which I think is better, your new position at the hospital or the fact that you're finally starting to get along with my wife in the way that I always wanted you to."

"I think Carly would warm up to just about anyone… if she actually took the time to get to know them before she ripped their heads off with her vicious fangs."

"We're both living proof of that, aren't we?" Sonny chuckled. His wife was something else, but he loved her more than he had ever loved anyone before. "Well… I think that we should celebrate."

"Actually, I have a favor to ask…"

"What is it?"

"Can I have the jet tomorrow?"

Sonny was surprised by the question. "Are you going home?" It would have made sense for him to return to Los Angeles a few days after the anniversary of his mother's death. Maybe he just needed to be around them.

"Port Charles is home now, dad. Los Angeles is where I grew up… this is where I'm going to actually define myself as an individual."

"I'm happy to hear you say that." Happy was a word that didn't begin to describe the feelings that were swelling up inside of Sonny. His son had finally come to the conclusion that Port Charles was his home. It seemed to him that everything was finally starting to get better in life. Everything was going to be all right. "So why do you want the jet?"

"I want to take Maxie out to New York tomorrow…"

"On New Years Eve?"

"I know it's going to be crowded…"

"You're putting in mildly. Even when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn there were so many different people around the city on New Years Eve. You could hear them counting down for miles and miles when the ball was going to drop." They were some of his better childhood memories. His mother used to love sitting by the window and just listening to the people, listening to how happy they were. It gave Adella hope for the future. "Maxie must want to be a part of that crowd…"

"I wanted to spend the night here, with you and everyone else. But I wanted to go there during the day… just walk around. I've never actually been to New York… I want to do something special with her before I have to start cutting into the time that I can spend with her as much as I'm going to."

"Is there anything you're not good at?"

"What do you mean?"

"It seems like you're perfect… you're a great son, nephew, brother, friend… and even a boyfriend."

"Don't do that… please." If Sonny knew what his own son was keeping from him he would quickly change his opinion on how great Damian was. Even though the lies that he kept were for the best reasons he knew how Sonny valued trust and honesty, the same way that Damian himself did. Besides, he had plenty of flaws. He was aware of each of them.

"I'm just saying…"

"I know what you're saying, and I really do appreciate the compliment. I'm just not very good at accepting them I guess. So… the jet?"

"Have you checked the weather report?"

"Snow should be coming, but it shouldn't be heavy in the New York Area, it's going a different direction. Please, dad… I really need to do this."

"You're not going to give me a daughter-in-law to be while you're there, are you?"

"What?" He wasn't expecting his father to even fathom such things. "Dad… I'm not going to propose to Maxie. I would tell you if I were. And even if I was… you'd still give me the jet, right?"

"Right… I'll have the pilot ready to take you to New York in the morning."

"Thanks…" the joy that he was feeling, the pride, the togetherness that he had spent so much time looking for, denying himself. He realized how frail it was. With almost no effort everything that they had both worked so hard to gain since they had met could have been destroyed. Damian didn't want that, and he knew that his father didn't either.


	78. Growing Up

Journeylove- Relationships between the characters is basically the core focus of the story, and that's not something that I think is going to change. Carly and Damian's relationship took a long time to actually cement itself, but ultimately it was more rewarding for me to see them come together despite their differences. Sonny and Damian's relationship is unique, but there are plenty of barriers that both of them have and quite possibly will always have. I've seen some of the fanfiction that people write… and while I respect creative freedom I can't help but smack my head at some of the stuff they put out. Dillon being gay is quite popular in some circles. They like to pair him up with Lucas. I just shake my head and walk away. As for the virginity thing… I can almost assure you that Damian will remain a virgin for the long haul. Even if he was to break his vow I wouldn't write it, what with the smut being illegal on It's a point that will be addressed soon enough.

Story-

Evening, Corinthos Household-

He was on his bed, feet dangling over the edge as he looked up at the ceiling. He thought about all the things that could have possibly gone wrong with the idea, every single moment that he spent thinking about it made him wonder if he was making the right decision. All he needed to think about to ensure himself of the fact that he was doing the right thing was Morgan… he saved his baby brother's life, but Michael probably wouldn't have had the same luck. The risks were worth taking, and if Carly knew what he was trying to do she would probably let him do it. Maybe he shouldn't have promised Bobbie that he wouldn't tell anyone, because it was eating up inside at him and he'd only been given the idea a few hours prior.

Hearing a knock at the bedroom door, Damian sat up, "Come in."

The door opened, the person on the other side walking in. "Hey…"

"Dillon?" Although they were best friends it was made very obvious to everyone that Dillon rarely came into the Corinthos home, despite being scant few feet away. Damian, of course, didn't hold it against Dillon in the least. His father, and his step-mother, were intimidating. It was a momentous occasion for Dillon to brave the chances of being berated or scorned at.

"Were you busy?" The younger man asked, still standing in the doorway, "Because if you were… I could just leave…"

"You're making your last visit to my room for the year, it wouldn't be very nice of me to just throw you out, now would it?" He tried to make Dillon feel comfortable, feel welcome, but while Dillon probably knew that nothing would happen to him there was always the 'what if' factor, and it was a very strong factor, especially to him.

"I just came…"

"You just came to make sure that I was doing all right…"

"Yeah."

"I'm fine, Dillon," he was really getting tired of people trying to find ways to make him feel better. It wasn't like anyone could come and kiss his wound, making it go away. He knew that their intentions were good, but sometimes it was better to just let a person deal with their problems alone. Besides, he was as over it as he could possibly be. "For what it's worth… I didn't mean to worry you or anyone else. I apologize for that."

"You don't need to apologize. You have a reason for wanting to be left alone, and it's a pretty good reason, too."

"You claim to understand this… yet you come over and ask…"

"Do you want me to leave?" Dillon wasn't sure what the comment meant. Was there hostility involved? Had he done something wrong?

"No, it's fine. I guess I'm just not used to people… you know, caring… back home I didn't have a friend like you… or a friend, period, really."

"I know how that goes," Dillon nodded. "When I was in Europe with my mom we would always move around so often that I didn't have a chance to really make any friends, let alone the fact that every single time we moved to a different country there was probably a different language that was spoken. By the time I was even able to have a semi-intellectual conversation in French we were gone… went to Germany or something."

"You had the language barrier… I didn't. Everyone around me spoke English, or Spanish, and since I'm fluent in one and pretty decent in the other I should have done better… but I didn't."

"I don't see why you weren't able to make friends in Los Angeles… I mean, you came here and you made friends pretty quickly."

"I had to make friends here… because I didn't have the safety net that I did back in Los Angeles. I came here to find my family, my paternal family, but when I came they didn't know that I was a member of their family, I didn't even know if I would really want to be a part of their lives… so I had to make sure that I did something differently about myself to make it easier for me to get people who I could talk to. Or maybe I just never met anyone like Elizabeth in Los Angeles…"

"Elizabeth is pretty unique," Dillon agreed. She had a genuineness that made her seem like she was from another world.

"Los Angeles is… different from Port Charles, Dillon. I know that you want to go to USC for school, and I won't ever try and tell you that you shouldn't go because I know that the school is good for people like you… but you need to be prepared for what you could be facing. Over there… people are selfish and don't care about others. Everyone is in a rush, nobody takes their time… people die because they think that getting from point A to point B two seconds sooner is so important."

"I'm used to being around rude people… remember? France? The French?"

"I always thought that stereotype wasn't true…"

Dillon laughed, "It's true enough. Of course there are a few people who aren't rude, who are kind… but if you go to the places where there are a bunch of tourists running around all year long you'll see why we think of the French like we do."

"I'm sorry…"

"About what?"

"About the fact that you had to grow up running around another country for most of your life. People are always saying how they want to do that, how they want to backpack around Europe before they get too old…"

"My mom doesn't even know how to use a backpack." The image of Tracy walking up a mountain with a sack filled with varied polyester clothing was enough to make Dillon want to roll over with laughter. "So it's not like I was suffering with walking around from country to country. No, we had the best hotels that were in the area, room service… you name it."

"But you didn't have friends… and you didn't let it get you down. Until I came here I managed to convince myself that I didn't need friends, you know? Maybe there were a few people in school who really did want to get to know me… I guess I should have tried to know them instead of pushing them away. In Los Angeles… I really was, at least in some way, a different person."

"We like the person you are now," Dillon wasn't sure if he wanted to believe that Damian could be someone other than the person that he was. "If it was so 'easy' for you to change personalities then it probably means that this is the person you've always wanted to be, which is why it was so easy for you to switch."

"You think so?"

"I know so," he finally took a seat on the bed. "I mean, look at me. I know you didn't know me when I first came to Port Charles… but at first I was angry at the world for everything. I know my mom isn't the best person that she can be, but she's still my mother and until the moment she dropped me off at the mansion she was the only person who I really knew… so I was stuck here, in Port Charles, without knowing anyone, not even my own family. I lashed out a lot… even when I knew Georgie, at least at first. Grandfather was always talking about how he wanted to send me away to military school because I was so troubled. Ned even tried to tell me what kind of a person our mom really was and I didn't want to believe him. I know better now."

"So?"

"So Georgie helped me. She pretty much saved me from being consumed with everything that I had inside of me. She showed me that what I had in Europe, whatever it was that I claimed to have, which I can't even remember anymore, wasn't nearly as good as what I had in Port Charles. Yeah, sure, there were plenty of things that weren't worth it… but I had her, and that was more than enough."

"And now look at you… the sarcastic, fun-loving goof who keeps plenty of hair product companies in business…"

"All I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with being a different person now than you were when you got here… as long as the person that you are now is better than the person that you used to be."

"When did you start giving me advice?"

"Hey, being your friend as long as I have been… it's kind of hard not to have some of your innate wisdom rub off on a guy. You've taught me a lot… but you've taught Maxie way more. I used to worry about her… so did Georgie. Now we don't spend nearly as much time thinking about what mistake she's going to make next in her life that we're going to have to try and pull her out of, and it's all because of you."

"You're just trying to make me blush…"

"Is it working?"

"Probably not," he smirked. "But the effort is what counts, right?"

"So… you don't have any regrets?"

"I have plenty of them," Damian sighed. "But I've done what I can to make up for the regrets that I have inside of me. I've started a better relationship with everyone in my family, especially my dad… and Carly. I spent so long just being angry at them all, especially my father."

"Sonny lied to you about what he did. I'd be mad, too."

"But he had a good reason for it in the end. I didn't really want to see it that way. I was just mad that he lied to me. I should have known that he was doing it to protect me, like he tries to protect Michael and Morgan."

"You're not a little kid…"

"Doesn't matter how old you are, Dillon, a bullet is still a bullet… or a speeding vehicle, or a crazed psychopath…"

Dillon found himself quickly changing the subject, "So what are your plans for tomorrow? Going to take Maxie out to some fancy restaurant? Or just go back to Kelly's for the thousandth time?"

"I don't know if we'll go out to a fancy restaurant… but we're going to New York. Dad said I could take the jet."

"Why are you going to New York on New Years Eve?"

"I've got my reasons." He trusted Dillon, but a promise of silence was still a promise. Maxie needed to know because she was an intricate part of the plan, Dillon was, at best, a third-party. "I want to do something with Maxie before the end of the year. Yesterday… I worried her so much, and I wasn't really all that great of a person to her today."

"You're recovering from the pain…"

"That doesn't give me the right to treat the person, or persons, that I care about like they don't matter. I don't think I really did that with Maxie, but I was distant… something that I couldn't really help."

"She'll forgive you."

"Thanks."

"I guess we'll be spending New Years Eve alone…"

"You might want to see if Brook wants to do something with you and Georgie." He remembered the girl and the pain that she was feeling. It wasn't his right to tell Dillon about it, besides, she seemed to be doing better with whatever was bugging her by the end of their conversation. "I know that it would be kind of odd, her being the third wheel and all, but we're the only people around her age that know her in Port Charles. Unless you want her to spend New Years Eve with the Quartermaine's."

"No… that would be mean," Dillon shuddered at the thought. "They always make sure to bring in the New Year with a fight of some sort. Those crazy, crazy Quartermaine's…"

"Well, you have a camera… you could record their dysfunction."

"People know that my family is pretty much the most irregular family on the face of the Earth, what good would it do to have it on film?"

"Blackmailing possibilities?"

"Now you're starting to sound like a Corinthos…"

Although Damian knew that the comment was made tongue-in-cheek, he wasn't sure if it was true on some basic level. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to sound like a Corinthos.


	79. Departure

Note: Oops! I put the wrong chapter up on March 17th, so if you're reading this on March 18th, go back and make sure it's not about LiRic… everyone else, you're fine…

Journeylove-

Like I just said above… that chapter's supposed to go up tomorrow, but since I was stupid I put it in on accident. I love the Elizabeth/Ric relationship very much as well, I think it is a wonderful part of the show, but alas, it has ended. That's all well and good, but in my story it isn't over yet. So yay.

Story-

Corinthos Household, Morning-

"So… you're going to pick her up?"

"Yeah… I'll pick her up, we'll leave the car at the airport and take the jet to New York."

"Need some money?"

Damian rolled his eyes, "You've already given me plenty of money, plus a few credit cards…"

"Most people wouldn't turn down the chance to get some more money, you know?" Sonny snickered. His boy was so un-materialistic that it was nearly impossible to believe that he was born in the 1980's.

"How many times do we have to go through this?"

"I know, I know. You're not most people. I get it. But when Carly…"

"And now you're comparing me to Carly? I'd rather be compared to 'most people…'"

"Are you going to let me finish?"

"I was going to try and head out the door before this became one of our rare heart to hearts…"

"I thought you liked those. You know, I could just call the pilot and tell him not to take you and your girlfriend to New York so that you could do something that you don't want to tell me about…"

"All right! You win…" he had a feeling that his father was merely jesting about the denial of the jet, but he wasn't going to chance it. Time was limited. Not the time of his little brothers or of Carly, but his time. School would start on Monday and once it started he would have no possible way of getting out of town for a day, or even for a few hours. Plus, he did like the heart to hearts.

"When Carly goes to New York she usually takes a few thousand dollars with her. She always finds something that she wants to buy and just can't live without."

"You're giving her a lot of credit by saying that she only finds 'something.' Carly usually finds a way to make sure that she comes back from New York with more than a few things that she 'just can't live without.' I've seen the bags that she brought with her from her pre-Christmas shopping spree. Including the ones that she tried to keep hidden from you…"

"What?"

"Nothing…" he tried to correct his error, giving his step-mother more room to get away with her splurging antics. It was hard to keep secrets from Sonny, and it was Carly and her clothing.

"What are you hiding from me?" The boy was a horrible liar, just like Carly. They could attempt to keep secrets from him, but he was Sonny Corinthos, and Sonny Corinthos always had a way of finding out in the end.

"What are you two doing down here?" Carly asked as she walked down the stairs.

"Damian's tongue managed to slip… I know, Carly."

Carly stopped walking down the stairs and just stood there in silence. Sonny knew? Sonny knew everything that she had done? Was he going to leave her? Of course he was going to leave her, why wouldn't he? "Sonny… I'm so sorry! I didn't mean…"

The quivering in Carly's voice was enough to alert Damian to the fact that she thought Sonny knew something else, something that Sonny could never find out about. "I'm sure Carly feels horrible about spending so much money in New York when she left, dad, but she's a woman… and she loves to shop."

"What?" Carly's eyes turned to the boy. What the hell was he talking about? Why was he trying to make the situation seem like it was less important. Sonny would hate that even more.

"I told dad about the extra bags that you had stashed over at Aunt Courtney's… you know, the stuff that you didn't want him to see?"

"Shame on you, Carly…" Sonny added humorously. "I'm going to need to buy a bigger house just so you can have enough closet space."

"We're getting a new house?" Michael, who had also woken up, came running down the stairs, moving past Carly as he heard the words that appealed to him on every conceivable level. He latched onto Sonny's leg, "Can it have a tree house, and a big back yard, and can we take Rosie?"

"That was a joke, buddy," Sonny looked down, seeing Michael's hopeful eyes staring at him. "We're not getting a new house. I thought you liked it here…"

"I do… I just wanted a place where I could play outside."

"You can always go to the park and play whenever you want," Sonny did feel a small amount of guilt, never having realized before how the penthouse deprived his children of things that others had. Even when he was growing up, as painful as his childhood was, he still had plenty of room to run around and play. Michael was confined to the house and the hallway. It didn't really seem fair. "As long as your homework is done and it isn't too late. You know that."

"It's not the same…"

"I bet you don't even realize how jealous the other kids at school are of you, Michael," Damian tried to cheer the boy up.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've got the best view in Port Charles. You can look out of your window in your room and you can see everything, the ocean, the lights, the boats that come in to the harbor at night. How many of the kids at school can say that?"

"None…"

"And how many of the kids at your school have backyards that they can play in?"

"A lot…"

"See?" Damian hoped that his logic would work, sometimes it was hit or miss, especially with kids. "You have something that nobody else has, but you want something that plenty of other people do have. What you have now, here, in the penthouse, is something that is way more special than a plain old backyard. Plus, there's an elevator outside…"

"Can we go to the park now?" Michael requested.

"I think you should get dressed first, Mr. Man," Carly said, holding back a chuckle, "Spider-Man pajamas don't really make for the best clothing to wear at the park."

"Maybe you could have given him something better to wear if you wouldn't have spent so much money on yourself," Sonny said in a mockingly cold tone of voice.

"You won't be complaining when you see how those dresses look on me, Sonny Corinthos. I can promise you that."

"Are you going to come?" Michael looked at Damian, not understanding or wanting to have anything to do with his parents' conversation. They had their own language, and it probably involved kissing.

"I can't, Michael…"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm going to fly to New York with Maxie…"

"But…" Michael lowered his eyes. "But I wanted to stay up till midnight with everyone… now you won't be here and it won't be as fun."

"Hey," Damian started to speak, voice soft and kind, "I don't intend on staying the whole night, Michael. I'm going to be back before the end of the night… trust me, I want to get out of New York as soon as I can."

"Why are you even going?" Carly asked, not having heard of the plan until that very moment.

Damian's face was blank, as blank as he could make it. Carly couldn't know that she was the reason that he was going to New York City because then she might be able to piece together the fact that the person who Bobbie thought was her father was there. "Maxie wants to go."

"On New Years Eve?"

"What better time to go then on New Years Eve, Carly?" Damian retorted. "All the people from all over the world… a social butterfly like Maxie could have plenty of fun."

"And what about you?" Carly knew how he didn't really like big crowds. New York was big enough on a regular day, New Years Eve was sheer madness.

"I'll just find some cardboard box to hide under or something. Hopefully a hobo won't be inside."

"You have everything you need?" Sonny wondered.

"I think so."

"Do we need to run down the list?"

"Dad… would you stop treating this like it's me going out to prom? The only thing you're missing is a camera with the flash going off in my eyes."

"I didn't see a prom picture…"

"That's because I didn't go." There was no need for him to even fathom attending his high school prom. Or any other dance for that matter. If Maxie were still in high school… well, they probably wouldn't be a couple if she was still in high school. "I need to get going… if I'm going to get Maxie and make it to the jet on time."

"Have fun," Carly was finally getting the feeling back in her body, the fright that had consumed her washing over her like it was never there. But she knew it was. Each time she saw Sonny give her a questionable look she would wonder if it was because he knew what she was doing, what they were hiding from him, and then it would be all over. But she couldn't let that continue to eat at her, at least not as much as it had. If Carly let the guilt eat at her then she would snap. "And if you can…"

"I'm not buying you any more clothes!"

"Don't you have enough clothes, mommy?"

"Et Tu, Michael?"

"Huh?" The boy obviously didn't understand what Carly meant. It was the only thing from that play that she could remember.

She just laughed, not at him, but at the way he was looking at her. "Nothing, sweetie. Why don't you go run upstairs while I talk to your father for a minute, okay?"

"Okay."

When Michael was safely out of the room, Carly continued the few steps before she was near Sonny, "You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"He's only been gone… what… a minute?"

"It doesn't matter, Sonny. I know you. It could be a minute, it could be a second. He's your son, you love him, and he's not going to be around you so you can't protect him. It must drive you crazy."

"It does…"

"And I know what you're thinking. You've probably got a few people on call to drive down to New York and hunt him down…"

"They would find him. I know they would."

"I don't doubt it, Sonny, but you can't do that." Carly rubbed his back, feeling the tension that he had hidden from both of his children, but Sonny couldn't hide it from her. Carly knew him too well. "Damian trusts you now. If you don't trust him enough to let him go out with his girlfriend alone then you might lose that trust all over again. None of us wants that to happen."

"The last time he went away from me I almost lost him…"

"Faith is gone, Sonny." Carly would always count her blessings when it came to Faith no longer being a part of their lives. "She can't hurt him now."

"I hope you're right…"

"I think I am."

Sonny hugged Carly, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Carly."

She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes, feeling the love wash over her, the same love that she felt for him. The frail love that could be shattered so easily. She didn't want to lose it.


	80. Set The Date

Story-

Outside Kelly's-

Elizabeth tried to see if the door to the restaurant was open, but it wasn't. If Mike was there he was obviously doing something that took his full attention. Usually it involved making the fresh pies. The beaters made more than enough noise to make her light taps on the door unheard by his ears.

However, Elizabeth was not completely helpless. She had a job to do, and more importantly she had the key that would open the door. Maybe Mike needed some help. The pies were his specialty, but she could do something else. Digging into her purse, Elizabeth pulled out the key and pushed it into the lock, slowly turning it, hearing the latch free itself.

"Boo!"

Elizabeth screamed as the sudden voice appeared from behind her. Her heart racing, she turned around to see her fiancé, trying to hold back the chuckles that were still managing to spill out of his mouth. "Ric!"

"Surprised?"

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Elizabeth swatted at his arm with her glove. "Why would you do something like that?"

"To prove that I'm prone to being whimsical from time to time…"

"I knew that already," she said, trying to sound good natured. In her mind, though, she knew that there were many times when Ric's fits of whimsy were not all that great. Stealing Carly while she was pregnant with Morgan was only one of them. He'd done so many horrible things, both to her and to other people, in the misguided thinking that it was for the good of their relationship. That was why she had to end it the first time. She didn't want the same mistakes to repeat themselves. She had to tell herself that they wouldn't.

"Look," Ric picked up her hand, "you're shaking…"

"Well you almost made me jump out of my skin. What were you expecting me to do?"

"Maybe you're just cold," Ric said slyly, "perhaps I should try and warm you up." Without another word spoken, Ric wrapped his arms around Elizabeth, the warmth of their bodies together filling him with great passion and hope, things that he had not felt since they had severed their ties the first time. Ric had been through plenty of dark periods in his life before, but the first few weeks being without Elizabeth were no doubt the hardest on him. "How does that feel?"

Elizabeth let a sound of pleasure and serenity escape her lips as her grin grew. She had missed Ric's touch, too, but no matter how much she missed it, no matter how much she loved him, she wouldn't go back to the man that she had divorced. Ric had to be a changed person, and he was. If nobody else wanted to see that then it was their fault, but she knew. She knew Ric better than anyone else, probably better than he knew himself. "I wish I could just stay right here all day long…"

"Who says you can't?"

"I don't think that we can both just stand here for hours without getting tired, Ric."

"Damn the laws of physics…"

"As a lawyer, I'm sure you h ate them even more. One of the few things that you can't contest."

Ric snickered, "I'm sure a few of us have tried over the years. But, if we can't hold each other in this exact spot for the entire day… why don't we do it in other places? It's New Years Eve, Elizabeth. I want to spend it with you."

"I'm working the morning shift…"

"You're always working," Ric said, his voice carrying a somewhat whining tone. He didn't mean to sound like he was against the idea of Elizabeth working, although he was on some level. She deserved to do something that would fully encompass her talents. Unless she was using the plates left over by the customers as her canvases and the condiments as her paints, waitressing really did nothing to feed the artisticness that made her the beautiful woman that she was.

"I have bills to pay…"

"I could pay them for you." Ric would gladly pay any amount of money that was necessary to keep Elizabeth happy. He was an attorney, a damned good one, when people wanted his representation they paid a pretty penny for it. Even though being the district attorney didn't pay as much as just being a regular lawyer he still had enough money saved up to keep them happy for a very long time. "If you would just give me the chance…"

"We've been over this, Ric."

"I know," he let go of her, showing that he supported her decision. "Your life is still your life, even though we've agreed to pledge ourselves to one another again. I don't want you to work here, but I won't stop you."

"Thank you."

"But couldn't you just ask for today off?"

"I'm literally two feet away from my job, Ric… it's a little late to call in sick, don't you think? Besides… Mike might still need the help, coping with what happened to Morgan. It's not something that you can just wash over in a day or two. I know that…"

Ric lowered his head, knowing exactly what she was talking about. Losing their child was something that she had never gotten over, and neither had he. Nobody would truly ever get over knowing that something that was there was taken away so easily. "I understand… sometimes I just think that you would work every single day if you could. Even Christmas."

"We're closed on Christmas. I didn't work. I spent it with you, remember? We watched those old clay animation movies that I used to love… you even pretended to like them."

"I didn't pretend!"

"I saw you rolling your eyes when you thought I wasn't looking," Elizabeth kissed his cheek. "But it was nice of you to at least try and have some fun for me…"

"I would do it again if you asked."

"I'll make sure to remember that when Easter comes along. I haven't watched any of those Peter Cottontail movies in quite a long time…"

"Wonderful," Ric's voice had once more shifted in its tone, now it was completely defeated. He didn't much care for the old specials of their youth, it brought back too many painful memories.

"I should probably go inside…"

"Wait, Elizabeth…"

"What is it?"

Ric looked at her. She was so beautiful. Everything that he ever wanted in a woman was right in front of him. She was kind and funny, passionate about the things that she cared about. Ric wondered if his mother was like that. People said that sometimes men married those that were like their mothers. Ric would never know… and Sonny would likely never tell him anything.

"Ric?" Elizabeth was afraid of the silence. Oftentimes it meant that Ric was hiding something from her. She didn't want to believe that he was that person but that didn't mean that there weren't times when she worried that he was.

"Can you get the day after tomorrow off?"

"What? Why?"

"Because… that's when I want us to get married." He smiled again, his farce ending. "I know I said that I would let you pick everything… but last night when I was sitting in bed I realized that I didn't want to spend another day without you. I know that today and tomorrow are probably pretty hectic as far as ceremonies go… so I thought the day after New Year people would get over the hype and not do anything… that would be the best day and the closest to today. I want you to be Mrs. Richard Lansing again…"

Elizabeth blushed, "I don't know what to say…"

"I do," Ric countered. "Say, 'I'll be happy to get the day off from work, Ric. I'll be happy to marry you again!' Or something of that nature. Doesn't have to be word for word, you're not being prosecuted here."

"Is there enough time to get everything in order?"

"We didn't want a fancy wedding, remember? Or did you change your mind."

"No," she shook her head. "Of course not. I just want it to be the two of us and the people that we have to have as witnesses…"

"Well, my family is out of the question…"

"Ric…"

"No, it's okay," Ric kissed her hand. "I understand that they wouldn't want to be at my wedding. If Carly and Sonny got divorced again, which, as history has shown us, they probably will, and then they got remarried, again, going with the trend, I wouldn't want to be there. Why bother giving them a present? They already have everything…"

"You still have family who cares about you…"

"I don't think he would attend my wedding… Sonny probably wouldn't approve."

"Do you think so little of him that you believe he would deny you, his uncle, who he does care about, the joy of being at your wedding simply because of his father?" Elizabeth knew that Damian would go… if he was invited. "Really, Ric, you're not giving him enough credit."

"I don't want to get my hopes up…"

"You really want them there, don't you?"

Ric looked into the restaurant to see the cold ice blue stare of Mike Corbin directed at him. He quickly moved his eyes out of the way to make it seem like he wasn't looking. Mike wasn't a member of his family, but he still hated feeling like he was judged by the man. After all, Mike had abandoned his two children. How did that give him any sort of room for judgment? "I just want to feel accepted by the people who I'm related to… is that so horrible?"

"Of course not, honey," Elizabeth had long realized that of all Ric's demons the neglect from his maternal family was chief among them. She knew what that was like on some level. Her family wasn't idealistic either, she and her sister didn't really get along. Her brother was great. She loved Steven, but Steven was never around. "If I could wave a wand and have it magically make you and Sonny get along you know I would do it in a heartbeat."

"Thank you…"

"But nobody has that power. Nobody has the power to change Sonny's mind except for Sonny…"

"He might not even have that power," Ric's comment was not even trying to hide back the snide-subtext that dripped out of it. Once Sonny put a person on his black list they often stayed there. Carly managed to get away with more than a few things, though. The joys of putting out.

"Are you going to ask Damian or not? Because if you're not… then I will."

"Elizabeth…"

"No," she said firmly. "You want him there, I want him there, he wants to be there. He's the only person that we've told about the wedding! How would it reflect on us if we didn't tell him abou the actual date? How much of our relationship do we somewhat owe to him?"

"More than I would care to admit…"

"So?"

"All right… I'll call him sometime today or tomorrow and tell him."

"Thank you." Elizabeth turned around and saw Mike doing something, cleaning off the glasses or some such menial task. "I should get to work."

"So should I…"

"Love you," Elizabeth kissed him on the lips. "And we'll do something together tonight, promise."

"Love you, too." Ric watched Elizabeth walk in before turning around. All he wanted was the one thing that he could never get. Usually the big brother thought the little brother to be a pest, but in the end there was a deep love between the two. Such was not the case with him and Sonny. Was it wrong to just want something like that? He didn't think it was.


	81. One Of Those Plans

Announcement: I'm well aware of the fact that I will not have enough time to do the story the way I want to do it... but that does not mean that I am giving up, because I'm not. I will find a place to end the story, and then take a sabbatical over summer... or something. The story isn't stopping anytime soon, but I can almost guarantee that it will be at a place where it has some closure before the end of May. Just thought you would want to know. 

Sweetie'sengagedtoherman- Forgive me for not doing the capital and lower cases like you… anyway, thank you for the review, I always appreciate feedback. People are demanding the Journey and I feel bad for not being able to meet the demand with my supply. There is a Journey section that has been written, but it won't be up for a few days.

Angle445- As stated above… Journey is around, but won't be 'seen' for a few days. Can't have things going out of order. However, if I can find reasons, I will make the effort to place Journey into the story more, since you people seem to love them so much. I love them, too… just didn't think I would have such a high demand for them.

Story-

Morgan Household-

Courtney was relaxing on the sofa. Her life always seemed to be in some sort of upheaval, all she wanted was a few moments to herself where she could just take a second and breathe. They were few and far between, but they did exist, and because they existed she was always thankful when they came.

Her eyes opened and she groaned when she heard the sound of the door being knocked on. Waiting a moment to see if the person would go away she forced herself to her feet when the knocking persisted. She needed to get one of those 'do not distrub' signs that they had at the hotels.

More knocking followed, whoever was at the other end of the door really wanted to get her attention. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Carly waited at the door for her best friend. Normally she would have just opened the door and walked in, but she was feeling oddly traditional. Sometimes she wondered if she was breaking up passionate moments between Courtney and Jason. It seemed to happen from time to time and Carly truly regretted it when it did. She loved them both so much, she wanted them to be happy. It just seemed that they could never be happy because one or both of them always ended up being involved in whatever problem she or Sonny or one of the kids' was going through. It wasn't fair. Carly wanted to make up for it.

"What?" Courtney's voice was a low growl, but she looked away when she saw it was Carly. Her dear friend, she could never be mad at Carly. "Sorry…"

Carly looked past Courtney's shoulder to see if there was someone, anyone, in the room with her. There wasn't. Carly didn't hear someone walking down from the stairs, so it probably meant that Courtney was alone. "If you need me to come back later…"

"No, it's all right," Courtney held the door open. "You know that I'm always here for you."

"Yeah…" Carly walked inside. "That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What do you mean?"

"You're great to me, you know that?" She spoke once more. "You and Jason are the best best friends that I could have ever asked for, and I don't deserve either of you in my life…"

"Carly…" Courtney didn't like it when Carly got on a self-pity fest, it usually meant that she had done something wrong. With Carly, when something went wrong something went very wrong. "You know that's not true. We help you because we love you."

"That's besides the point…"

"No," Courtney interrupted, "that is the point. There are times when I don't agree with what you're trying to do, but I stand by you because I know that deep down your reasons are probably good."

"I just want to do something for the two of you for once…"

"You don't need…"

"I know I don't need to, Courtney," Carly grabbed her best friend's hand and led her to the couch. "I know that the two of you never expect anything from me or Sonny or any of the people who you help… but you help everyone so much that I feel it's about time I did something to repay the favor, and believe me… of anyone in Port Charles I owe you both the most."

"Look… I appreciate the gesture, and I'm sure Jason would, too. But you know how much he hates it when people do stuff with his time that he doesn't know about… I don't want him to be angry with me, or with you, because of something that we did."

"Jason won't mind…"

"That's what Damian thought…"

"What are you talking about?"

"You didn't know," Courtney should have known better. Why would those two give each other a heart-to-heart confession? They were more likely to go after each other's hearts, and not in the love sense.

"I noticed that Damian was acting a little… distant towards Jason, more than usual… but I didn't pay much attention. Is everything okay?"

"It's fine… just… Damian thought he could help Jason and the Quartermaine's at the same time…"

Carly put her hand over her mouth. She had an idea of what was going on, "He tried to get them together, didn't he?"

"He got them together… but Jason only stayed because it was Christmas, and because he knew that Lila would have wanted him there." Courtney brushed some hair off her shoulder… she had no right to talk about what had happened, but she had already begun to tell the details, no sense in stopping, "Jason really appreciated what Damian tried to do… but you know Jason, he hates it when people try to run his life."

"He has good reason." Carly was well aware of Jason's life before he changed his name. He was little more than puppet animated by the strings pulled by every single member of that family, always trying to do the one thing that would please them the most. Carly was glad that he managed to get out of that life. She was glad that she managed to pull Michael away from that family before it was too late.

"So… right now isn't exactly the best time to spring plans on Jason when he doesn't have any input in what happens…"

"I'm telling you that he'll love this plan, Courtney."

"I don't want to be the one to take the blame."

"Then let me!" Carly was being highly demanding. "You people always take the blame from me, even when I deserve it all… come on… can you at least listen to my idea?"

"Sometimes your ideas are best kept to yourself…"

"Now you're just being mean."

"Or honest."

"They seem to go together at times, don't they?" Carly smirked. "Tonight is New Years Eve… you don't have anything planned, do you?"

"Jason's not big on celebration…"

"It's only for a few hours, I think he can manage." Carly looked at the tree which was still in the room. "He seems to have gotten into the holiday spirit as of late… look, I know that you worry about me when I have ideas, but this one is harmless. We're not going out tonight because we're still worried about Morgan, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun…"

"What kind of fun?"

"I can have Max and some of the other guards move some of the furniture out of the way in the living room and we can play music. Don't you see?" There was the glint in Carly's eye that she got when she planned something that was lavish. "We can have our own private dinner party at my place. It'll be like when we were little… playing dress up. We'll wear our fancy clothes, have good food… champagne. Then we can bring in the New Year together… as a family."

"How can I help?"

"You don't help," Carly pressed on Courtney's shoulders, "you just bring yourself and your husband over later tonight… do you understand me? You do not do anything. Don't lift a finger… just pick something nice to wear and come. If you want to watch the decoration process I can't stop you, but if I so much as see you lift a single finger to do something other than maybe take a drink of water you'll be hearing from me…"

"Is Carly being a dictator… again…"

The woman in question looked up the stairs. "Stay out of this, junior!"

"Hey, I resent that comment! I am Dillon Quartermaine the first!"

"Yeah, and if you get in my way I'm going to make sure that you don't have the chance to make a Dillon Quartermaine the second!"

"But I wanted to film the mob party!" Dillon had heard the tail end of the discussion. "It would be great for my movie…"

"Nobody under drinking age allowed," Carly stuck her tongue out. It was good that she could let herself go around Dillon. She was resentful of the idea at first, perhaps even more than Jason, but she also embraced Dillon as a part of the life that happened around the penthouse.

"Michael's going to be there…"

"Michael is going to stay in his room. This is an adult's only party."

"Are you telling me that I'm not an adult?"

"You can try to prove me wrong when you get a hairstyle that doesn't make you look like a superhero out of a comic book!"

"You guys," Courtney was trying to hold back the laughter that came from their banter. "I haven't even said I was going to go with the idea yet!"

"You know you want to, Courtney," Dillon kept walking down the stairs. "I've seen you when you're dressed up in a fancy dress… the sequin gown, the sparkles, you thrive in situations like that. Even the queen of segregation…"

"Don't call me that!"

"Then don't age discriminate," Dillon quipped. "It doesn't matter anyway, Carly… I was just saying that I wanted to go. I don't want to be at your stupid party!"

"Liar!"

"You two are giving me a headache!"

"I have a girlfriend," Dillon continued, partially ignoring Courtney because he was having fun battling it out with Carly. "We're going to do something special tonight…"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah!"

Carly knew that he was lying. Dillon might have been a Quartermaine, but unlike most of the Quartermaine's he was a horrible liar. The price of trying to be an honest and good kid, which he was… but being honest and good had more than a few downsides to it. "Why don't you tell me what you have planned, then."

"We're going to watch a movie…"

"You spend hours on end watching movies, Dillon," Carly shook her head. "How is that special?"

"First you discriminate against me because I'm still too young to have gray hair and now you crush my dreams!" His lip quivered slightly, "You're a very bad lady!"

"I do not have gray hair!"

"Because you color it…"

Courtney rolled her eyes, wondering if the two of them even knew she was in the room any longer. Standing once more, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. She was going to need some aspirin.


	82. Correcting Errors

Note- Apparently they're bringing Maxie back to the show at the end of May. However, don't jump up and down yet, because Robyn Richards is not returning to the role. Instead, it is going to Kirsten Storms, Belle from Days. This does not please me, because I love Robyn. I have nothing against Kirsten, I'm actually quite fond of her, too, but she is not the Maxie I desire. That said, much like Carly, any involvement of those characters from me will be with the actors who are, or have, portrayed them as of 2003.

Journeylove- I wish Jason and Dillon would have more scenes together. They make me happy, I quite literally throw my arms in the air and squeal. But, I must make do with what I am given… or make my own dreams come true, which I do. Honestly, Carly's plan is more for amusement rather than malice. So it could turn out better. Not saying it will, but it could. I actually enjoy the show very much right now, more than I have in quite some time. I'm depressed to all hell that Tamara is leaving, but I'll manage. The Michael storyline has a huge amount of potential in my eyes and I really do hope it's exploited. I'm actually a little afraid of the summer, because that's when they do stupid things. The panic room, Dillon's gender bender, the erectile dysfunction (honestly, Scott Clifton gets shafted…), etc. Of course, summer brought Lila's death, which was easily the greatest thing I've seen on the show, ever. Not because she died, but because it was so beautifully handled. There are no plans for Sonny to find out about Carly's actions and the ramifications that they had on Damian, at least at the moment.

Quartermaine Mansion, Exterior-

Lois gingerly ran her index finger across one of the roses that were in the garden. Even though it was wintertime there were still some of the flowers in bloom. Whoever was working on the garden was having a hard time keeping all of them alive. Lila didn't have a hard time keeping them alive at all. Her spirit was enough to bring life to everything, even in the bleakest of hours. That was the type of person she was… radiating nothing but goodness, even when swarmed by the darkness that came from being a member of her family. She loved them all so much, through the good and the bad.

Lois didn't try and hide the tears that were streaming down her face as she looked at each of the individual flowers. The last time she had seen the garden everything was so beautiful, now there was almost nothing left of the splendor. It was very much like the life of the mansion. There was still something there, but without Lila… it just felt cheapened.

"Brook?"

Lois turned around, hiding her tears from her ex-husband. She knew that she couldn't keep her voice completely monotone, but that didn't stop her from trying. "Brook's not out here right now…"

"I don't know where she is, do you?"

"No, I don't."

"Okay," Ned could sense the uneasiness that was between them. They were divorcee's, there would always be that unspoken friction that would keep them apart, but they were also parents… and Ned knew that even though Lois and Brook didn't appear to always get along Brook did care about her mother deeply. So did Ned. That had never changed, no matter what Lois used as her last name. "Lois… are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Eddie…" she silently cursed at herself for using the pet name. "I mean… Ned."

"You're not all right," Ned put his briefcase on the table and walked over to her. "Did you have another fight with my mother?"

"Tracy's never been able to make me feel like this… I could just care less about what that woman's opinion of me is. She seems to have a low opinion of everyone…"

"Everyone except Lila…"

"Even a heartless demon like your mother has to love her own mother. Nobody who knew Lila. Who let themselves be touched by Lila could have anything but love for that woman… even Tracy."

"She loved you, too. You know that, right?"

Lois felt more tears come down her face, "I didn't need to hear that…"

"It was a compliment."

She laughed slightly. "I know, Ned… I know. Lila cared about me, and lord knows how much I cared about her. There were plenty of times that I thought about setting up a little time when I could just talk to her, after Brookie started talking I was thinking that I could have her talk with Lila, too. I really should have. Brook may have never been old enough to really remember her great-grandmother… but that doesn't mean that she should have been deprived of her voice. Lila's voice was so soothing."

"Nobody blames you for keeping Brook away from this family. Not Lila. Not even me… I understand why you did it. You know how many times I've tried to get away from here, Lois… but I can never do it. These people, no matter what, they're my family. They're really all I have."

"There was a time that you just needed a guitar and a band… that was everything you wanted, everything you had."

"I'm not that person anymore…"

"I know," Lois faced Ned and put her hand on his cheek. "It's like I'm looking at a mirror and seeing the person that I fell in love with… but I know that deep down that person can never come out again."

"If I could…"

"I know you would do it in a heartbeat." Lois closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears. "But it doesn't matter, does it? Hoping doesn't do us any good. All we have are the facts, and the facts are that you can't do that anymore…"

"I still love music."

"The day you no longer love music is the day that I'm willing to believe that the apocalypse is upon us… sadly, I think that it's a little more likely than your mother being a nice person. No offense."

"None taken," Ned said with a small smirk. Before he knew it more words came out of his mouth, "Lord… I've missed you so much. Your humor, your laugh, your smile…"

"You made the choice…"

"And I've always thought that I made the wrong one."

"Yeah… so did I. You making the wrong choice, I mean. But you're not the only one who needs to feel guilty, Ned. You're not the only one who made stupid choices. I kept our daughter away from her family, away from you and the rest of the Quartermaine's… thinking that they would always be there when I thought Brook was ready… but it looks like I was wrong. I don't even think that if Lila had died I would ever be ready. I was just fooling myself… giving my actions some sort of justification in my mind. Something that would make me feel all right with depriving you people of a part of your life."

"Members of our family have done much worse…" there were way too many instances of the family doing the most horrible things to each other, but they eventually got over it… or at least managed to find some way to make peace.

"And yet you still welcome them back with open arms… even the ones who aren't Quartermaine's by blood."

"Those are the ones who we need to welcome the most," Ned said sarcastically. "People like you and Monica are the real troopers. It takes a certain type of person to actually want into this family instead of just being burdened with being born in it."

"Sometimes I wonder if you have to use humor to just keep on with living…"

"Sometimes I wonder the same thing. I've had years of exposure to them, Lois… my poor little brother was just thrust into this family after never knowing any of us… he never adjusted."

"Which might be a reason why…"

"Don't say it. Please, don't say it…"

"I've seen him, Ned… I've seen him and I've seen Jason. What you're thinking doesn't make any sense."

"Dillon wanted to do something to keep him away from the Quartermaine lifestyle… at first he wanted Jason to welcome him with open arms, but it didn't work… so he went and started doing odd jobs for Lorenzo Alcazar, who, I might point out, was murdered."

"Lorenzo Alcazar, from what I've heard… wasn't exactly the type of person who you would want around anyway… and Dillon wasn't involved with him at that point."

"No, but he was involved with Jason… what if Dillon had been around when Alcazar was murdered? What if Dillon would have been caught in the crossfire? What if I would have been forced to head over to the morgue and identify the body of my teenaged brother?"

"You're thinking about this too much…"

"Or you're not thinking about it enough."

"We're not going to get into this discussion again, are we?"

"What discussion?" Ned asked. "The one where I tell you that you need to stop being so blind to Sonny and the way he works his life?"

"That would be the one, yes…"

"I don't see how you can just turn around and think of him as this great person…"

"Because I know him better than you do. What you see is…" she threw her arms up, "we're not getting in to this…"

"Because you know I'm right."

"Because I'm not going to waste my breath listening while you try and break apart the person who I think is my best friend. You've always hated Sonny, Ned… and I never once accepted that you did… but I lived with it. Why can't you do the same?"

"I don't have to. We're not married anymore…"

"Is that how it is?" Lois asked sadly. "We're not bound together by law and by love… so you can't respect my choices as an individual? You know… the reason I left was because I knew you were becoming too much like the Quartermaine's for my own good… maybe I should have stayed away."

"When you leave, are you going to take her with you?"

"She's my daughter!"

"She's my daughter, too! And because of you I never got to see her grow up. None of us did."

"Enough!" Brook walked in from the family room. "Both of you… I'm tired of listening to the two of you argue… which is kind of funny when you think about the fact that I'm used to only spending time with one of you…"

"Princess…"

"Don't 'princess' me, dad!" Brook's anger flared. "The two of you can't even just agree to try and get along with each other for a little while… what are you going to do if you decide to stay here?"

Ned's eyes grew wide, "What do you mean?"

"Brookie… now isn't the time."

"No, it's the perfect time," Brook didn't want to keep secrets from her father. She hated keeping anything from him. "Ma's been thinking about sticking around Port Charles for a little while… giving me a stable home for the first time since I can remember, letting me enroll in a real school where I can make actual friends."

"I thought you were just kidding…"

"Well I wasn't," Lois turned her blue eyes to Ned once more. "Even though you drive me crazy, Ned Ashton, you are still Brook Lynn's father and you have the right to be in her life. I denied it to you for too long."

"So you're staying almost completely out of guilt?"

"I might be staying because I realize now that doing what I did was of no help to you or to my daughter. I don't want to wake up one morning and know that I robbed Brook of knowing you or anyone else in this family. One time was enough."

"Maybe I don't even want to be here," Brook lamented. "Not if the two of you are always going to be at one another's throats. Look, I love both of you… but if loving both of you means that the two of you have to stay away from each other then I guess that's what I really want in the end."

Ned and Lois were stunned by Brook's statement. Ned called out to her while she was leaving, "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere but here…" Brook was out of sight a moment later.

Lois threw her head back and groaned, "Teenagers…" The woman had no clue what her decision was going to be, but she didn't want to continue making mistakes. She meant what she said… one time was enough.


	83. Why Are You?

Aboard the Corinthos Jet-

"We're running a little late…" Maxie was used to running late, but since she became a part of Damian's life it didn't seem like it was something that was so acceptable. He tried to be on top of everything. He was good like that. Organized. Much like Georgie helped Dillon get his life in order amid the chaos, Damian helped her with the same thing.

"It couldn't be helped." Damian had been on very few airliners in his time, but he could say with complete certainty that the blush couches in his father's jet were far superior to the seats that he sat in when he was flying to and from Los Angeles on commercial airliners. The only thing that needed to be changed was the lack of peanuts.

"I'm sorry about that…"

He cupped her chin with his hand and smiled, "You don't need to apologize, Maxie. What happened wasn't your fault. You can't be blamed for Mac giving us a forty-five minute lecture on what we could and could not do in New York."

"What can we do in New York?"

"Breathe?"

She laughed. He was good at making her feel better with his humor, but, for once, she could one up him, "Nope, Mac said that we couldn't breathe because of all the smog and air pollution."

"I'll make sure that we have those oxygen masks the whole time we're in New York."

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything. I thought you knew that." He never wanted to keep things from her… but there were times that he did. It was one of his many flaws, one of his many hypocrisies. He could claim to be the most honest person that he could be, but deep down he lied more frequently than he ever thought possible.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Taking you to New York?"

"No… why are you doing this for her?" The last word was clearly pronounced with no attempts at hiding the venomous subtext. Maxie was not very good at being subtle, and when it came to Carly Corinthos she really found no reason to do it anyway.

"She's my step-mother…"

"Who hates you."

"Hated." Damian corrected his girlfriend. "And I don't think she ever truly hated me. I don't even think I ever really hated her, either."

"Well I do…"

"Maxie, you can't do this…"

"I can't want to keep you happy?" Maxie was not going to let anyone walk over Damian. He might have been okay with being the universal floor mat, but she was not going to stand idly by while he took the licks that weren't meant for him.

"You can't let your hatred for Carly consume you, and you don't hate her… not really."

"Yes I do."

"I saw you, Maxie… I saw you looking at her when Morgan was sick. That moment before I left the hospital after I gave him my blood… you were looking at her and your eyes were filled with so much sorrow and pity. Those are eyes that you couldn't give to someone you hate."

"Her baby might have died… I'm not a heartless person. How could I not feel for her? That doesn't mean I like her."

"But, because you're not a heartless person it means that you don't hate her." He moved his hand down to hers, putting it over her soft and beautiful hand. "I know why Carly was against me being in her life when I first got here now, Maxie, and I don't hold it against her. If the situation was turned around I know that I would act the same way. If my father had come into my life instead of me coming into his I wouldn't have been welcoming the man with open arms."

"I still don't like her…"

"Most people don't," he replied with a snicker. "She gets into it with Dillon worse than she ever got into it with me… but I think they actually like each other, in some strange sort of way."

"She's not a nice person…"

"She cares about the people who are in her family, and even those that aren't. She's not perfect, she's far from it, but that doesn't make her a bad person. Even when the two of us couldn't stand being around one another I did respect her desire to keep her family safe. I hated that she was so blind that she couldn't see I just wanted my place in their lives… but Carly would do whatever was necessary if she needed to keep anyone safe."

"Even you?"

He was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. She had put his life in jeopardy, but he had seen her guilt, seen her attempts at atonement. Carly would never do something like that again, especially to him. If someone tried to hurt him… he really wanted to believe that she would be one of the people looking for vengeance. "I choose to believe that Carly would want me to be safe, too."

"That doesn't make you right."

"It doesn't make you right, either."

"You still haven't answered the question."

"Carly has a right to know who her father is…"

"So why are you going instead of her? This Durant guy isn't even blood related to you… if we find him, if he ends up being Carly's father, then what? You're still the one doing all the research yourself."

"Because Bobbie trusts my judgment. I'm the one with the most emotional detachment on this situation, and I've still got plenty. I want to see who this guy is, Maxie. I want to know that he is a good person, that he would be a good father to Carly and be a good grandfather to my little brothers."

"And why am I here?"

"Because I trust your judgment… you don't even like Carly, which means that you've got objectivity that I could never get again."

"Nobody… nobody has ever said that they trusted my judgment. They always thought that I was going to do something stupid… and they were right. More than a few times I did something that I knew was wrong, but I did it anyway because I felt like it."

"You're not that person anymore…"

"And I have you to thank for that."

He smiled at her, "You don't need to thank me, Maxie. I know that you would have eventually realized that you had more potential than you had ever thought possible. You would have matured into the woman that you are now with or without me."

"But it could have taken awhile…"

"Some things are worth waiting for. I had to wait almost twenty-one years before I met you…"

She blushed. "I wish it could have been sooner."

The voice over the intercom system came up, "We'll be arriving in New York City in less than ten minutes."

"How did you manage to get Mac to let you come along?" Damian asked. "I know that you got him to concede because I'm still trying to get the ringing out of my ears from his rant… but I half-expected you to just sneak out on him."

"I had help…"

"Georgie?"

"She wanted me to spend time with you…"

"I knew there was a reason that I liked that girl."

"She and Dillon went to go see a play over the summer in New York. Mac still didn't trust Dillon then, but he let them go together… I said that it wouldn't be fair if he didn't let me go to New York with you."

"Did they go see 'Cats'? I've always wanted to see 'Cats'…"

She laughed, "Damian… 'Cats' has been off Broadway for at least five years…"

"Really?"

"Yeah…"

He threw his head back in disgust. "Why am I tormented like this? First I can't go see Siegfried and Roy anymore… now I can't even watch 'Cats.' Aren't I like one-eighth Irish, or something? Shouldn't I have a little bit of luck by default?"

"You're cute when you pout…"

"I really wanted to spend time with them, too, you know?" Damian asked. "But the less people know about this the better. Carly's probably going to be pissed off at me for not telling her about it when she finds out… no reason to drag the teenagers into it."

Maxie heard him, but she wasn't really paying attention. Her mind was elsewhere. Everything that had changed in such a short amount of time was coming back to her. They had gone in the summer. In the summer she didn't know him. In the summer she was still with Kyle… he was still alive.

"Maxie?" It was easy to see that she had become distant again. "Hey, Maxie… hello?"

"What?" The haze of her wandering mind was lifted. "What did you say?"

"What's the matter?"

"I was just thinking…"

"About what?"

She gave him a genuine smile as she put her hand on his cheek, watching as he closed his eyes. Kyle never asked what she was thinking about. "It doesn't matter, does it? All that matters is that I'm here with you right now."

"I'm glad you came with me."

"Where else would I be, Damian? We're together now and it's the best part of my life. I wouldn't want you to do this alone… no matter how much I hate Carly, or think I hate Carly I wouldn't make you try and find her father without some help… and since you can't trust your family right now…"

"I do trust my family, all of them… but I need something different from the opinions that they could give. I can't bring Uncle Jason here, Maxie. John Durant is a federal prosecutor… he could be giving his liver to a sick child and Uncle Jason would still find some way to make him seem bad."

"We'll find a way to make this work," she said confidently. This was one of the few times in their relationship where Damian truly needed her. Maxie was sure that she would do everything she could to make it work out.


	84. Talking Shop

Corinthos Household-

"You're amazing, you know that, right?"

"Well, back in high school I used to be called 'Mister Fantastic,' like the guy on the 'Fantastic Four.' So, I guess amazing would work… yeah."

Carly snickered. "You were a comic book geek in high school?"

"I was holding the issue for my little brother! The whole situation got out of control…"

"I seem to remember you telling me that you were the youngest son in the family…"

"It could have been a surrogate little brother…"

"Really, Max," Carly countered, "you don't need to lie to me. I mean I think it's very cool that you liked comics growing up."

"No you don't…"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because no sane woman would ever think that someone who read comic books past the age of 12 was 'cool.' It's in the rulebook or something." Max grinned. "Believe me… I've seen several copies of that book, including the revisions."

"You're relying too much on my sanity," Carly noted from the stairway. "You've lived in Port Charles for awhile, Max… you've worked for my husband almost as long as that. Think about it. How many people would ever call me, Caroline Benson Corinthos, sane?"

"Do… do I really have to answer that?"

She laughed, "Yes…"

"Honestly?"

"You know that we don't appreciate lies in this house, Max." They may have told more than a few, but they tried to be honest as much as possible. It wasn't their fault that the honesty policy frequently got thrown to the dogs more often than not.

"I can't even count the number of people who think that you've got a few screws loose, Mrs. C. But it doesn't matter to me what any of those people say. I know you, and I'd like to think that I know you pretty well. You're a level-headed woman… most of the time."

Her eyebrow went up with the final part of his comment. "What do you mean, 'most of the time?'"

"When your kids are in trouble you can get a little scattered, but they're your kids, nobody holds it against you for worrying about them so much that it drives you crazy… I certainly don't."

"Thank you, Max…"

"You wanted honesty, right?" Max loved working for the Corinthos family. Although his mother constantly berated him about working 'for' someone like he was a servant, Max knew that it was the furthest from the truth. He may have done things that made him seem like a servant, but part of the job classification had to do with the people that he was working for treating him like he was nothing. None of the Corinthos family did that, or the Morgan's. They treated him like he was an individual. He'd never had something like that before.

"Just so you know… you're not getting off on that comic book question…"

Groaning as he realized that Carly was not going to concede to his fictitious storyline about the 'little brother,' Max stopped his labor for a moment. "All right, you win… I always wanted to be taller, and maybe a little skinnier… Mr. Fantastic was tall and thin and the smartest guy on the planet… a pretty good role model."

"So then what happened?"

"I got into liking the Punisher," Max dryly commented. "You know, the guy who uses guns all the time… look where I am now."

"I wouldn't feel safe without you around, Max. You're important to me and to my family, just like Jason and Courtney." She meant it. Max was kind and funny, he made her feel safe in more ways than just being protected. "Things wouldn't be as easy as they are now without you."

"Meaning that you wouldn't have someone to move your furniture around?"

The grin returned on Carly's lovely face, "You're a lot more useful than that… but you did come in handy."

Max hid the fatigue that was coursing through his body well. Moving the couches and chairs in the Corinthos home was a lot harder than he thought it would be. Thankfully it was just moving them, it wasn't picking them up. Max may have been stronger than the average man, but he wasn't that strong. "Are you sure Mister C is going to like this?"

"I'm not the one who moved everything around. Why would he get mad at me…"

"You're not using me as a scapegoat for your diabolical furniture plans…"

"Come on, Max, it'll be fun. Besides, when have my plans ever gone wrong?"

"You want the honest answer…"

A moment of quick silence passed before Carly gave him his answer, "No… not this time."

"You still haven't told me just what this is for…"

"You never asked."

"Usually when you have something big in mind you're telling everyone who will listen."

"Are you saying that I ramble?" Carly knew that it was one of her quirks, one that she tried really hard to get rid of, but when she had something to say she was going to say it, and whoever got in her way was going to find that she was not a very easy person to ignore.

"I wouldn't say 'ramble…' more like you get very enthused with your projects." A nice save on behalf of the 'hired help.' Max knew that Sonny wouldn't bat an eyelash at getting rid of anyone who pissed his wife off, at least in a way that she didn't deserve. And when Sonny got rid of people he didn't do it in the firing sense. Max did not want to be on the receiving end of Sonny's wrath. Too many times he had come close to it and those times would always stand out as the times when he was the most scared in his life.

"With Morgan still recovering from everything that happened to him we can't really go out for New Years Eve tonight… which is fine, I guess. Sonny doesn't really like to go out that much anyway. But I didn't want to let the whole night go to waste. It only comes once a year, you know?"

"Chinese New Year is in a few months… Morgan will be better by then."

"It won't be the same. Besides… those paper dragon things that the Chinese use to celebrate New Years make a big mess. You want to be cleaning that mess up, Max?"

"No… but I will if I'm asked to. I don't mind cleaning."

"You're going to make someone a very good husband one day, Max DiMaggio. Is there anything that you won't do?"

"Kill cockroaches… they scare me."

"Now you're just pulling my leg."

"Am I?" Max hated the bugs. Black little demons. They gave him the creeps. Discretely taking in a much needed breath, Max looked around. "Is this good, Mrs. C? Is this what you wanted?"

"It looks great, Max… thank you."

"No problem. If you need me, I'll be watching the door." Max gave her a tender smile as he headed for the door, his hand going for the handle just as Sonny walked in. Max took a step back, not because of any wrongdoing on his part, far from it, he just didn't want to get nailed with the door in his face. "Afternoon, Mister C."

"Hey, Max." Sonny was instantly cautious about what was going on. It was rare that Max was actually in the house. Usually he came in for a moment, at Sonny's request. "Is everything all right?"

"Fine. I was just telling Mrs. C that I was going to be outside if she needed me. Of course, the same applies to you."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks," Sonny focused on the room, waiting for Max to leave before he gave his wife a glare. "What are you doing?"

"Having some fun," Carly replied, completely ready to get into as big of a pouting mode as she needed in order to ensure that she got what she wanted. She wanted to do something with her family, just the adults. She loved her children, but that didn't mean that there were things she wanted to keep from them.

"Fun?" Sonny shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder what you think is fun…"

"Dressing up…"

"See, I don't think that's very much fun, Carly…"

"But you'll do it anyway, right?" Carly walked down the stairs and into her husband's arm, gently running her hands through his slicked hair. "Because you love me… because you love me so much that you'll accommodate for my needs just one last time before the year is over…"

"I don't want to go anywhere… Morgan's…"

"We won't be going anywhere, Sonny," Carly put her finger to his lip, hoping to silence him. "Morgan's still at risk, I know that. Even with Leticia around I still don't think that it's a good idea to leave him. We're his parents, his family. That's why I had Max move the furniture around…"

"Because Morgan's going to get sick if we don't?"

"No, silly," Carly laughed, "because we can use the space where the furniture used to be as a dance floor."

"Dance floor?"

"Sonny… I know you're a lot smarter than you look."

"I resent that comment…"

"It was a compliment."

"Sorry… Ric's told it to me a few times before. You know how I feel about anything that man says about me." Ric could give Damian all the praise he wanted until the day that he died, he would still mean nothing to Sonny. Nobody did that to his family, especially if Ric was a member of his family, and got away with it.

"Tonight is New Years Eve, Sonny. The last big night of the year that starts everything all over again. Tell me you want to kiss me when the clock strikes midnight…"

"I want to kiss you right now…"

Carly leaned her head in and gave him a soft, brisk kiss. "You won't get the real thing until midnight… so if you don't want to come to my party then I guess you'll just have to wait even longer."

"You're blackmailing me, are you?"

"What can I say?" She shrugged her shoulders, "I learned a lot growing up… and being with the Quartermaine's for that time helped. They can try and act all prim and proper, but they're even worse than we are when it comes to the scheming. So… what's it going to be?"

"Just you and me… in the house… dancing… until midnight?"

"No, of course not," Carly shook her head, "Jason and Courtney are going to be over, too. We're all going to be dressed up nicely and you'll cook…"

"I didn't agree to cook anything…"

"It's part of the contract, Sonny. You signed on the dotted line."

"I don't remember that being part of any contract that I've ever signed… and you know me, I read those things pretty throughougly."

"I managed to slip it by you. It says that you will agree to give your most excellent cooking skills to me at the first possible notice."

"Just the four of us?"

"Right now… yeah…"

"Carly..."

"All right," she nodded. "I don't really want to spend the day with anyone else but you and my best friends anyway. I won't even invite my mother. You happy?"

"Don't tell her that… I'd hate to make Bobbie think that I don't like her."

"She stopped thinking that you didn't like her years ago. She also stopped thinking that she didn't like you."

"Thank goodness for small favors."

"So, we're in agreement then?" Carly was hopeful, she didn't even need to beg, she just needed to be persistent. "Tonight, we spend the last few hours of the year together as adults."

"Just make sure you save me the first dance…"

Carly hugged her husband, kissing him on the cheek, "I wouldn't give it to anyone else in the world, Sonny. Nobody but you."


	85. Our Alone Time

WhiteCamellia- Thank you for your compliments, I hope that further chapters continue to please you as a reader.

Story-

Port Charles Park-

Georgie Jones sat on the bench of the park, the snowflakes that had only recently begun to fall onto the earth having covered the bench before she got there. Georgie didn't like being alone very much. It was something that she had become accustomed to growing up, but ever since she met Dillon there was hardly ever a time where they weren't together. He always claimed that she had saved him from whatever it was that was bothering him… but the truth was that Dillon was just as much a savoir to Georgie as she was to him, perhaps more so.

The park had been a place where she had created many memories with the people that she cared about. She was blessed to have more good memories than bad ones, something that most people in Port Charles could not claim. There was always something that was lurking underneath. Georgie had seen it a few times… she had been kidnapped by a madman before, but through it all she would only try to retain that girlish smile and her level head. Given the situations that managed to come around her it was a miracle that she was still sane.

Georgie had things that she never thought she would have in her lifetime. She had a boyfriend, someone that she could love forever. She had some friends, too. And her relationship with Maxie had been strengthened considerably over the years. But Georgie wanted more. She only wanted more of one thing, but it was that one thing that she wanted more of that she thought she could never have.

"I didn't think it was going to snow today… the weather report said that it would pass New York and Port Charles, along with a few other areas. Stupid meteorologists, they're almost always wrong…"

Although she heard his voice, his sweet and comedic voice, she wasn't paying much attention. She could 'see' the grin that he was giving her while he spoke, the same cute grin that he almost always got when they saw each other. Sometimes they would only be apart for minutes, but he would still give that little mark of his affection. He probably didn't even realize it.

"Georgie?"

To think… she had spent so much time clamoring over Lucas, someone that she knew now would never work with her. She loved Lucas dearly, but she wasn't in love with him, she probably never was. They weren't 'cousins' by blood, but it would still be odd. She had enough going against her in school being the smart girl, she didn't need to be the one who would date her cousin, too.

"Georgie? Hello?" Dillon waved his hand in front of his girlfriend's face. "We still have a few days left of break, you know that, right? I won't have you zoning out on me while you think about the question in your calculus book… not until school starts! Do you hear me, Georgiana Jones? No thinking!"

"Stop," Georgie requested in a soft tone.

"Stop what?"

"Stop that," she looked up. "I wasn't thinking about school, I promise."

"Well, good," Dillon replied as he brushed off the light coating of snow that had amassed on the bench and sat down next to his girlfriend. "Here…" he held out a coffee cup, her favorite blend.

"You didn't…"

"I wanted to," Dillon grinned. "Besides, I figure I owe you a cup. I mean, you did bring me one while I was hunting for that tree…"

For the first time since they started talking, Georgie smiled. "I remember." She couldn't forget. He was a man possessed. It was cute, and a little scary. She'd never seen someone so focused on getting something in her life, and she had seen Maxie's attempts at getting the best concert tickets. Dillon trumped Maxie, and then some.

"I don't want to see her go…"

Taking the coffee cup in one hand and touching his cheek with the other, Georgie did what she thought she did best: soothe him. "Dillon, you knew what you were getting yourself into when you cut the tree down. It would have to go out of the house eventually…"

"But…"

"And what would you do if you still had a Christmas tree up in March? What would people say?"

"Nobody goes inside of Jason's house. Ever. So the point really doesn't matter that much, does it?"

"I can't argue with that one, can I?"

"Not really, no." Dillon took a sip of his own coffee. "But I'm used to it, you know? Not many people stopped by the mansion, either. I mean we would have businessmen walking in and out at times, but nobody ever stuck around to do much. At least now I'm closer to the heart of town… and closer to you."

"You were never that far away."

"So, are you going to tell me what was bothering you? I can't help fix the problem if I don't know what it is."

"You're going to think that it's stupid."

"I don't think that you're capable of thinking something stupid, Georgie. You're the smartest person I know, you make everyone else in Port Charles look like they belong in preschool, even people like my grandfather and my brother. I just hate to see you like this…"

"Like what?"

"Upset." Dillon could read the emotions that were going on inside of his girlfriend's mind. They were very clear signals. Georgie was good at a lot of things, holding her emotions in check was not one of them. "I love it when you smile. I love it when you laugh. I love it when you talk about things that I don't understand very much but I know that you care about them because of the way that you talk about them. You have so much passion in your voice… sometimes I wonder if I could ever have that much passion for movies."

"I don't think you could have more passion for movies than you already do. In fact, it would probably be very unhealthy if you did. Your obsession is already pretty strong."

"What I mean is that I don't like it when you're not talking, because it usually means that there is something wrong with you… and I never want you to be in pain. Ever." His sincerity should have never been in doubt. Dillon was well aware of his duty to protect his girlfriend, and it was one that he would not slack on.

"Dillon…"

"Don't make excuses," Dillon grabbed her hand and clutched it tight. "I know that you're trying to keep me from worrying about you, but if you make up some excuse about how you're really all right then I'm just going to worry more, and I'm going to try and find out what's bothering you. So, why don't you just save us both a little grief and spill."

"I miss spending time with you…"

"We spend time together all the time! Almost every day!"

"That's not what I mean…"

"What do you mean?"

"I miss spending time with you and having it be just about us, you know?" Georgie's eyes turned to look somewhere else, anywhere else. She didn't want to look at his eyes and see the disappointment that was in those brown eyes. She could deal with plenty of things, failing a class was easy, or at least she thought it would be. Failing in Dillon's eyes would be the hardest thing to deal with.

"No… not really…"

"We're always dealing with other people's problems," Georgie explained. "You know what I'm talking about, Dillon. We're either worrying about Damian, or Maxie, or both of them at the same time… or something else that someone else is going through. Before we could just talk about ourselves, we could joke around, we didn't have to worry about so many other people. I want that back."

"Georgie…"

"See?" Georgie interrupted, "I knew you were going to give me that look. It's why I didn't want to tell you." Gerogie stood up, brushing off her pants, "I should just go…"

"Why do you think that you should go anywhere?"

"Because you're upset with me."

"No, I'm not," Dillon also stood up. "You might know me pretty well, Georgie, but you're wrong if you think that at this very moment I'm upset with you. I understand what you're saying. I even agree with you on some level."

"Really?"

"Yes, really… but at the same time I know that we're doing the right thing…"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it, would you? We might worry about our friends, but that's because we care about them, because they are our friends. What kind of people would we be if we didn't worry about Damian and Maxie? He lost his mother, Georgie… two days ago he was probably as close to having a breakdown as he's ever going to get. He's my best friend… I'm going to try and help him if I can, and I won't apologize for caring about him, or about Maxie. You know why? Because I know that if the situation was reversed, if it was us that needed help, they would be the first two people to give it. Because that's what people do when they're friends… when they care about each other."

"So you do think I'm being selfish…" she knew that she was, and in that moment she didn't care. Was it wrong to not want something tarnishing the time that she had with Dillon? She didn't think it was.

"I think you have a right to want something more out of our relationship," Dillon said. "But I also think that attacking Damian and Maxie, and everyone else who might come into conflict with the two of us just having time alone, isn't the right thing to do."

"So you're not mad?"

"Georgie… the only way I could ever be mad with you is if you decided to do something that you knew was wrong, or you kept quiet about something that was bothering you until it was too late. You're allowed to want more out of life, nobody is going to hold that against you."

Georgie threw her arms around Dillon and kissed him on the lips before pulling away, "What did I do to deserve you?"

"You were yourself… that's more than enough to deserve me. Might be a punishment, you never know."

"Don't say that about yourself!"

"I love you, Georgie."

"I love you, too." Georgie pulled herself away as the snowflakes continued to fall on her and her boyfriend. "Why don't we make that our resolution? To set aside some time where it's just the two of us…"

"Seems like a good idea," Dillon nodded. "But you're not expecting us to just stop caring about the people around us, right?"

"Of course not…"

"Well, then I guess we've got ourselves some resolutions. Funny, I've never really had one before…"

"Did you want to do something tonight?"

"No… not really."

"I know that face, you do…"

"I'm just upset… Carly's having a party and we're not invited because we're teenagers."

"You're really upset about it?" Georgie didn't want to be at a party hosted by Carly Corinthos. She didn't want to be around Carly Corinthos. Who knew that Dillon and Carly could get along like they were?

"A little, yeah," Dillon wasn't going to lie. "Sometimes I wonder about it… how much they accept me into their lives. At times I think that I'm a part of their family, but other times I feel like I'm just tolerated because I live with Jason and Courtney. That hurts…"

"You're always going to be a part of my family, Dillon," Georgie said with sympathy. "You don't ever need to worry about that."


	86. From The Past

New York, New York-

"Why… why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Tell you about what?" Maxie asked smugly. Rare were the times when she could get under Damian's skin. It was never with malicious intent. Far from it. Maxie was just having fun.

"New York… it has how many different precincts?"

"Why would I know something like that?"

"Because you've been to New York before… and because your father is the damned police commissioner of Port Charles!"

"Port Charles is small… I've lived there my whole life. You, on the other hand, lived in Los Angeles for almost twenty one years…"

"And we all know how often I managed to get in trouble with the law during those twenty years, don't we?"

"Are you saying I was a troublemaker?"

"You told me that…" he muttered. "Besides, I didn't mean it like that. Los Angeles is a big place… but I never really got out of the house. I went to school, I went to church for awhile, I went to the hospital… and then I went to the college. It wasn't like I was hitting up the clubs."

"I've heard they were fun."

"I'd get a migraine." All that horrid music blasting into his head, if he went he'd probably end up having a seizure. "Not to mention all the smug people that would be around the place… I'd hate to catch some of their uber-materialism."

"Weren't we fighting about something?"

"We were fighting about how many damned police stations there are in New York City… and how it's going to be almost impossible to find John Durant if there are so many places that he could be…"

"And this was my fault because?"

"It isn't your fault," he said, holding her hand. For whatever reason he had spent most of the time that he had been in New York attached to Maxie. As if he was trying to make sure that she didn't get lost without him. Or maybe he just needed her to anchor him down. All the people were making him nervous. "I was just looking for some reason to complain… maybe Carly's rubbing off on me."

"You probably shouldn't let her do that. If you're going to start emulating Carly, that's easily the worst trait that you could pick."

"Well, Maxie, I'd love to hear what you think is my step-mother's best trait." It was an interesting comment, one that would no doubt bear a more interesting answer. What did Maxie like about Carly, if anything?

Maxie stopped at the street corner while she waited for the light to turn. She didn't know if there was anything about Carly that she didn't loathe. If she said that there was nothing would he get angry at her? Probably not, but she didn't want to take the chance. Looking around, inspiration struck. With jubilance, Maxie gave him her answer, "The ability to spend money on things that aren't needed is Carly's best trait."

"True… she does love to spend money."

"Especially in New York City."

"Well, look around," Damian observed. "It's a lot like Los Angeles, there are so many places that just scream at you to spend money, even if you don't have it. Carly has more money than she'll ever need, which means that she has plenty of reason to blow it off."

"And she sometimes buys things for the people that she cares about…"

"It's rare. Believe me, I saw her Christmas bags, they were filled with more stuff for her than anyone else. And I thought I ignored the spirit of the holiday."

How dense was her boyfriend? Maxie was laying all these hints that she wanted him to buy her something nice because they were in New York and she wasn't getting anywhere. What did she need to do, tell him that she wanted something upfront? Maybe he was just focused on doing what he was supposed to do. It was her favorite quality about Damian. The way that he would selflessly give himself up for the people that he cared about. His other qualities didn't hurt, but there were those that were just there, and those that needed to be there.

"Maxie… can I ask you something?"

Her eyes lit up as she thought he had finally taken the hint. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Do you think it's snowing a little too hard?"

Her head slumped slightly as she realized that he didn't catch the clues that she was giving him. She wondered if Dillon was as oblivious. But then Georgie didn't really have the need for things like she did. Taking a moment to access the question that had been given to her, Maxie put her hand out and felt the snow falling into her palm. "I don't think it's anything we have to worry about. I know how much you don't like the snow, but I think you can manage, especially if we spend most of our time inside of some building."

"What if he's not here?" Damian asked. "I mean, it is a holiday…"

"Why don't you call Ric and ask? He's the district attorney of Port Charles, he would probably know where to find John Durant."

"I can't call Uncle Ric…"

"Why not?"

"Because… because I don't trust him with this." He felt guilt saying that he didn't trust Ric, but that was the truth. "I know he's not a bad person, Maxie. Nobody is going to tell me that he hasn't seen what he did and hasn't tried to atone for it, but this is something that doesn't concern him. I trust my uncle with my private information… but someone else's, especially Carly's, isn't something that I can just hand out. Plus, I promised Bobbie I wouldn't tell anyone but you. He's going to ask why I'm looking for John Durant."

"I see…" that was what she was talking about. The way that he was able to just take a person for what they were. He'd probably have given Kyle a chance to redeem himself if Kyle hadn't have died. Such a nice person… maybe too nice. "Look," she pointed, "there's a police station. Maybe they'll know where he is."

"Zuniga!"

Damian found it odd that someone would be calling his name in the middle of New York City, let alone his last name. He turned around, still holding onto Maxie's hand. "Hello… Braden."

"Hey, man… been awhile… whose this pretty lady you have next to you?"

"My girlfriend," he realized that he said it a little possessively. Such things tended to happen when one was forced to interact with a person who wasn't exactly a friend. "Maxie… this is Braden, we went to high school together."

"Hi…" Maxie smiled. She could sense the hostility, but she was trying to see why Damian wouldn't like some random guy that he went to school with.

"Seems like you got yourself a keeper," Braden grinned, looking at Maxie with more than just a friendly eye. He was checking her out, that was obvious. "What are you doing here?"

"We're looking for someone…" Damian remarked.

"Maybe I could help?"

"I doubt it, Braden. New York is a big place." Although he had no doubt that if anyone in the world could find a way to meet and talk with every single person in New York City, it was Braden. "How about you, what are you doing here?"

"I always wanted to live here… so when I graduated from high school I made sure to apply to NYU. I got in, scholarship and everything. A few of the other guys from the wrestling team managed to make it here, too… you should come and hang out."

"I'll have to pass… we're just here on a visit."

"You still live in Los Angeles?" Braden couldn't help but keep on looking at Maxie. He had to admit it, Zuniga managed to get a hot girl. Who would have thought? Braden almost felt bad about starting all those rumors about him being gay… almost. Wasn't Braden's fault that Damian had never managed to get a girlfriend during four years of school.

"No… I moved to New York, too… just not the city. Port Charles."

"Little place… most people want to get out of there."

"I like it," he countered.

"Should have known that you would want to be in a town where there was a lot less… mingling."

"What can I say, Braden? Los Angeles left an imprint on me. Not a very good one, at that."

"You really didn't like it there, did you?"

"Kind of hard to like the place where your mother died, don't you think?"

"Still riding that card, are you?"

"Look, Braden, we have somewhere that we need to be. I'm glad to see that you're well and that you won't be one of those people who we hear stories about at reunions where a person ended up getting drunk and choking on their own vomit." It didn't take a genius to see that they didn't get along. But Damian hadn't yet attacked the man, so he was holding back something.

"Hey… for what it's worth… sorry about everything I put you through."

"In the past," Damian turned around. "But I had managed to forget about it… until I saw you."

Maxie looked back one more time at the guy that she had seen her boyfriend become… mean towards. "Do you want to talk about that guy?"

"Not really, no…"

"Will you if I ask you to?" Maxie didn't want him to hold the festering anger inside of him. That had gotten Damian into trouble too many times, she wanted to help him, but in order to do that she needed to know what she was up against. "Remember… you told me that you would try and include me in your life more. I can help you if you give me the chance."

"Braden's just a part of my past that I would have rather forgotten…"

"What did he do?"

"Made it so my outcast status never changed. Even though I didn't really care he found some way to make me seem like I was the type of person who nobody wanted to hang around with, unless they were forced to by blood. You know how high school is, Maxie… people like Braden, the people who have everything, are able to set the tide."

"He said he was sorry…"

"That was a cheap apology probably made to ease whatever guilt he may have been feeling… or just something so he could say it, knowing that it would piss me off. If so, he was right."

"What did he mean about riding the card?"

"He thought I was just using my mother's death to make excuses. I was able to miss a lot of days of school while she was sick… and yet I still managed to get good grades without being around. He thought that it was because the teachers pitied me…"

"Jerk…"

"I've called him some things that were more colorful than that in my life. But it's behind me now, Maxie… I have you, I have my family. I don't need to be reminded of things that don't matter anymore."

"I'm sorry he was so mean to you."

"Thanks… I know you mean that."

"You know… I did that for awhile, in school. Made people outcasts… made them probably hate going to school."

"And how do you feel about it now?"

"Horrible… I didn't have a right to treat people like that, but I kept on doing it anyway. I knew it was wrong deep down… but he was always there to tell me that it was the right thing to do."

"Who?"

"Kyle…"

"The difference between people like Kyle and Braden, and people like you, is that you can really change for the better. You wouldn't do that now if you had the chance, we both know it." He looked down at her, watching as the white specs of snow contrasted with the golden hues of her hair. "Come on, we still need to find Durant."


	87. Giving In

Note: Here! The obligatory Journey chapter! Back, back, Journey craving hellhounds! Just kidding, but it is Journey…

Story-

Morgan Household-

Courtney Morgan faced many difficult decisions in her life, most of them involving her husband, Jason. Such was the case with her current problem, but she knew that she could shelve it, if only for a few minutes. Jason wasn't home from whatever it was he was doing, which meant that she could hold hope on the notion that he would be too tired to argue with her. Many times that was how she ended up getting her way.

She would be the first person to admit that she thought Carly's idea was a magnificent one. It was just after Morgan's recovery, nobody wanted to go out and do anything festive, but they could be together as a family and just enjoy the company of one another. It had been too long since the four of them had actually managed to have some time when they wouldn't be worrying about one of the children, or a problem that was going on in their lives. The last time Courtney could remember them not having to worry about anything, just being captured in the moment, was at her wedding to Jason. That was a beautiful day, one that she could never forget.

"I'd give anything for that day to return," Courtney said to herself in the mirror. She could still remember how she felt when she was putting on the dress that she would wear when she married the man that would always own her heart. She remembered the night that they spent together. Everything.

Sadly for Courtney, remembering that high point of her life made her realize that there was never going to be another occurrence like that. She would never be as happy as she was the day that she married Jason, and while a part of that meant that she could never be happier than when she was bonded to him it also meant that there was going to be something keeping her from having such a moment of sheer bliss.

But it wasn't all bad. She would never say that her life was all bad. She had three wonderful nephews that she could always look forward to seeing. She had a best friend and a big brother who helped her whenever she needed it, she had her husband, and she even had a teenager that she could care for. Dillon may not have been hers, and she didn't want to take the role of mother, but it felt good to know that there was someone in the house that she could help out. Jason was always so stubborn to even take any sort of help that it was almost impossible for her to even make an offer.

What was she going to do if he said no? She couldn't just go without him. Even if it was ten feet away across the hallway, they were married. If Jason didn't want to do it… then she was stuck not going. Sometimes she hated that part about their marriage. There were plenty of times when she wanted to do something but she knew that Jason wouldn't want to do it… so she didn't say anything. Did it make her selfish? Perhaps, but Courtney had always been something of a social butterfly. If Jason claimed to love her despite all her 'flaws' as she had for him, would it not have gone into the marriage contract that he agreed to making a few public appearances a year?

She sat on her bed, her mirror image still clearly displayed. People were always telling her how beautiful she was, and she sometimes believed them. But the outer beauty that she radiated did little to help with the inner turmoil that her heart almost always felt. Luckily for Courtney, her heart was still strong enough to keep on going, despite the crippling blow that her life had to her morals, but when would that finally stop?

What would happen if it did? She couldn't stop being Carly's friend. She couldn't ever stop being Sonny's little sister. But she would have to stop being Jason's wife… but she wouldn't stop loving him. Was she strong enough to keep up a lie just because she didn't want to hurt his feelings? If she did and she was caught, which eventually she would, Jason could possibly find a way to hate her.

"Why am I thinking of things like that?" She groaned, throwing her head on the bed. "I love Jason… I love living with him, I love feeling him. I love just being there with him, alone, and not doing anything but look at him and watch him smile." The verbal statements were enough to convince her of her love for her husband. She could only hope that it was enough.

"Who are you talking to?"

Courtney was shocked by his sudden opening of the door, "Jason…"

"Is Dillon hiding the closet? You know better than to be in this room!"

"Relax… he's not in here…"

"Then who were you talking to? I don't see the phone anywhere."

"I was talking to myself, Jason," Courtney did not appreciate the questions. She was allowed to talk with people, but she knew where Jason was coming from. In his line of work talking to anyone was potentially a risk. "Sometimes I do that… I like to talk to myself because it helps me put my thoughts in order."

"I'm sorry," Jason apologized as he stood there, looking at his wife. "It's just…"

"What?"

"Nothing…"

"Jason," Courtney got off the bed and walked over to him. "You can hide a lot of things from me, but right now you can't hide the fact that there's something on your mind. I want to help you. You have to tell me what's going on in order for me to help you."

"Its work related…"

"That excuse isn't going to cut it this time, Jason. I know that you need to tell someone… and I've taken the vow of not talking to anyone who isn't in the circle. I don't know what else I need to do in order to prove my loyalty to you and to my brother…"

"You don't need to do anything else to prove yourself to me or to Sonny, Courtney."

"Then why won't you tell me what's bothering you?"

"All right," Jason showed a rare moment of weakness, conceding to his wife's constant pressure where before he would find a way to either quell it, or just leave. But since it indirectly involved Courtney… she had a right to know. "We went to a warehouse today… we thought that there might have been some things there that would be used against us."

"And were there?"

"Not really… but I know who the warehouse belonged to."

"Who would that be?"

"Alcazar…"

"Oh," Courtney lowered her eyes. "Jason… you don't have to worry about Alcazar, he's dead. You know that. You saw him die. I saw him die. You're the one who is always trying to convince everyone that he's never coming back."

"I know he's dead, Courtney, but that doesn't mean that he never existed. It doesn't mean that he didn't do those horrible things to you… to us. He cost us our baby, and then he almost cost me the one thing that was more precious than anything else… you."

"So you were worried about me…"

"I always worry about you," he replied. How could he not worry about Courtney? Being married to him made her a target. She could protect herself. In an actual fight she could probably take Jason, even with his height advantage. But no matter how good of a fighter she was, Courtney couldn't take a bullet and survive, not if it hit something vital.

"And that's why you were wondering who I was talking to…"

"Yeah, that's why I was wondering who you were talking to."

"Come here," Courtney hugged him when he took the few steps that were needed to bring him next to her. "I love you, and I'm glad that you want to protect me… but I'm as safe as I can be here."

"You're not completely safe…"

"Nobody is, Jason. Nobody is ever going to be completely safe from everything. I could walk outside and there could be a freak lightning storm that comes and a bolt could hit me… it doesn't matter that I'm Courtney Morgan, it doesn't matter that Sonny's my big brother, it just happened."

"I didn't need to hear that…"

"But you did," she corrected him. "Because you need to understand that there are things that are beyond your control. I see where Michael gets it now, from you. That need to find a way to make sure everyone that you care about is always safe."

"Is that so bad?"

"No… of course not. But when you think that you can actually make it so everyone is going to be safe, when you fool yourself into thinking that such an impossible thing can happen, then all you're doing is setting yourself up for defeat. You don't deal with defeat very well, Jason. In fact, you don't deal with it at all. I don't want to see you shut yourself down."

"I just want…"

"I know what you want. And I'm telling you right now that what you have in your life at this very moment is more than enough. We don't deserve to be a part of the family that we're a part of, Jason. We don't deserve to have wonderful people in our lives, but we do. We're lucky for what we have, blessed, but if you keep on hoping for something more then all you're doing is putting less appreciation on what you have. You can't do that. I won't let you do that."

Jason knew she was right. Courtney was almost always right. But while his heart knew it, his mind often refused to accept it. He turned his head and walked toward the other side of the room, looking out the window, looking down at Port Charles.

"Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you, Jason?"

"Yes, I do."

"And do you agree with me?"

"I wish it were that simple… I know you're right, though."

"You know what you need?"

"What?"

It was as good a time as any to lure Jason into her 'trap.' She only had one shot, too, so she had to make it count, "You need to get your mind off of everything, even if it's only for a little while."

"You have an idea, don't you?"

"I don't…"

"Courtney…"

"Really, Jason, it's not my idea. It's Carly's idea."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Would you at least hear her idea before you go and say that it's something that you're not going to like. I did the same thing, and I ended up liking it."

"Did you really? Or did you just give in to her… we both do that more than we should."

"I really liked the idea, on my own with no pressure from anyone."

"Am I going to need to be sitting down for this?"

"No, but you might want to stop brooding."

"I'm going to sit down." Jason was cautious, as he always was whenever Carly came to him with an idea, or he was told by someone else of Carly's idea. He moved over to the edge of the bed and sat down. "All right, Courtney… what is it."

"Carly wants us to get together tonight, for New Years Eve…"

"You know how much I hate being around people."

"Relax, Jason, it's only going to be the four of us, at the penthouse, celebrating. You don't have to worry about anyone staring at you and saying how you've squandered all your potential that you once had." She knew that was what he hated about being in public, and she didn't blame him. People were close minded. They didn't realize just how much Jason actually suffered trying to be Jason Quartermaine. They didn't realize how being Jason Morgan gave him so much freedom.

"I don't know…"

"What is there to worry about, Jason?" Courtney sat next to him, kicking up the pleading factor. "It's just Sonny and Carly. We spend a lot of time together with them. You don't have to worry about anything. I know that you don't like the whole dress up thing…"

"We have to dress up?"

"It's the last time that you'll be dressed up for the year."

"Yeah, but it's the first time I'll be dressed up for next year. Not exactly the best way to start a new year."

"Jason…"

"I'm kidding," he put his hand on her cheek. "I can see how much you want to do this… and, for you, I'll go along with it. But you don't get to make me do anything that requires me wearing a suit until at least Valentines Day."

"You drive a hard bargain, Jason Morgan," Courtney wrapped her arms around his neck, "but it's one that I have no trouble accepting."


	88. Opposite Sides Of The Coin

WhiteCamellia- Unless something happens to me or my internet, I usually update every day… because I really don't like the people who take forever to update, so I make sure that, for myself as a writer, I don't fall under those horrid habits. Maxie's hatred, fictional or not, is at least in her mind, justified with her contempt. If I were Maxie I wouldn't like her… but I'm not Maxie, so I can love Carly. As for the Journey chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed…

Story-

Port Charles Police Department-

Mac Scorpio knew that he was supposed to be doing his job, and on some level he was. Mac was a man who had many jobs, and they were all of great importance to him, but the job that would always prove to be the more important of any other job was his job as a father. The girls were all that he had. They weren't even his children biologically but he would do anything and everything that was necessary to protect them from people who might hurt them. That was why Mac was always so protective of them both, especially Maxie. The poor girl had gotten her heart stomped on too many times by that bastard that she thought she loved.

It wasn't that Mac didn't think Damian loved Maxie, he could see that the young Corinthos did, and Maxie in turn loved him, but the fact was that Damian was always going to be caught in the middle of a war that he didn't want to be a part of, and anyone associated with him was also going to be in danger of getting caught in that war. Maxie was too young to die. Mac wasn't strong enough to protect her from everything.

But he could keep her as safe as he felt possible, even when it threatened to cross the borderline into annoyance. "You were supposed to call me twenty minutes ago, Maxie."

"It took us twenty minutes to find a place in New York where there wasn't too much noise around us so I could call you, dad," Maxie's face showed her displeasure. She had agreed to the terms that Mac had given her and if she dared to try and go against them she would find herself in more trouble than she possibly could have been in otherwise.

"Don't make excuses."

"I'm not making excuses!"

"Yes, you are," Mac sat in his chair, his back turned to the door. "What's Damian doing?"

"Trying to find a nice street corner so he can sell my body for a good price…"

"What?"

"I'm joking, dad, relax," she knew that it would get to him, but she couldn't help it. Maxie had a sense of humor that needed to be fulfilled at times. It only worked against Mac in that instance.

"That's not very funny…"

"I'm sure if I could see your face right now it would be."

"Maxie, do you want to be able to leave the house again when you get back home?"

"Yes…"

"Then I suggest you stop joking around and get serious for a second," Mac was stern and firm. Maxie was too old to be playing games like she was. "What are you doing, where are you?"

"I'm standing underneath an awning… it's snowing really hard right now, dad."

"I know," Mac looked out the window, seeing the same snow. "Nobody thought that the storm front would bring the snow this way… guess that goes to show how much a college education can do for a person."

"Damian's waiting for me… I bought an umbrella at the store."

"Have you done anything yet?"

"No," Maxie thought about telling him everything, but one look at the young man next to her and she knew that it wasn't her place. "We're still looking for something to do. I'm sure we'll find it… this is New York City, after all."

"Stay safe, Maxie. If anything happens to you I'm holding your boyfriend personally responsible…"

"And what if something happens to him?"

"Then I'll have received a Christmas present a few days late…"

"Daddy…"

"I'm joking, Maxie, relax. See? I can have a sense of humor, too. Tell Damian to be careful too, okay? Call me in a few hours."

Ric had been listening in on the conversation. It wasn't something that he wanted to do, but he needed to speak with Mac. He was willing to give the man enough time to finish the conversation with his daughter, waiting until Mac hung up the phone before he knocked on the door.

Mac turned around in his chair and saw Ric. They didn't really get along, but Mac could see that Ric was trying very hard to become a better man than the person who people always saw him as. Mac wasn't yet ready to believe that Ric was anything other than the deranged man who had stolen a baby from a pregnant woman, a pregnant woman who just happened to be his sister-in-law, but time could change a person. Time had changed him.

"Maxie's out with Damian?"

"You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't," Ric replied. "He's not my son, he's my nephew."

"I thought you were close."

"In my family being close to me means trying not to kill me each time someone in my family sees me… Damian's never tried to kill me, I don't think."

"You've done plenty to earn that reputation."

"I'm aware of that, commissioner, and I'm trying to atone for everything that I did. That's why I'm here…"

"You're here because Scott Baldwin was quite possibly the only man in Port Charles who is more corrupt than you are. You're here because you managed to weasel your way into the Assistant District Attorney position which meant that when Scott was forced to resign you got the automatic promotion."

"Need I remind you, Mac, that you are a part of the reason that Scott Baldwin was forced to resign. You are a part of the reason why I'm in the position of power that I am in. If you didn't want me to be here then why the hell did you even bother helping with the situation?"

"Momentary weakness?"

"You just need to make sure that you're better than everyone else around here, don't you? Mac the morally pure commissioner, the single beacon of light and hope in the swarm of darkness and disease that is known as the Port Charles Police Department…"

"Do you mind if I quote that?" Mac asked. "I think it would look really good on my business cards…"

"You can't even be serious with me…"

"You want me to be serious with you, Ric?" Mac stood up. "Fine, I'll be serious with you. I do not like you. I never have, I probably never will, but I helped you out because I know that there might be a small part of you, deep down, that wants to do the right thing. I've helped people get their lives back on track… I don't see why I can't make the same offer to you, Ric. But if you mess this up… I don't give second chances."

"I don't want a second chance…"

"I don't care what you want, just make sure you don't use it. We might be in different positions here, but I still have a very high regard with the local board, more than enough to take you out through all the legal means, which you can't do anything about."

"Your dislike for me runs that deep?"

"My desire to keep the system as good as it can be is what runs deep, Lansing. I've watched this department wallow in so much corruption over the years that when I came into rank as commissioner I vowed to do something about it. So far I don't have a very good track record, but even small changes that are for the better are changes in the right direction."

"I want to help, Mac," Ric knew that Mac was telling the truth. He wanted to do the best thing for the town, for his children. Who was Ric to say that it was selfish of Mac to want Port Charles's safety level to go up? Ric wanted to be a father one day, he should have been already, he wanted his children to be safe, to be able to run around the park without fear of being shot.

"You can help by keeping yourself in check…"

"I've been doing that, and I've got help." He had people who cared about him, who would help him anchor himself back to the place that he needed to be. Elizabeth and Damian wouldn't let him slip back into his old habits.

"Let's hope it's enough…"

"If it is, will you actually tell me? Or will you just let me think that you're still looking for a reason to get rid of me?"

"If I told you that you would know what to look for," Mac wasn't going to give Ric any information that he felt Ric didn't need.

"Thank you, Mac…"

"Don't thank me, Lansing. I'm just doing my job."

"So am I," Ric nodded. "Which is why I'm here… although I must say that our little altercation wasn't something that I'm going to forget anytime soon…"

"Just get to the point."

"I need the file on the arsonist that we arrested a few weeks ago. Looking to sentence him soon."

"Make sure you don't go easy on him…"

"Why?"

"Because the empty house that he burned down was right next to a daycare center," Mac's eye showed just how much he hated the man for what he did. "If that guy had lit the fire a few hours earlier little kids could have been seriously hurt."

"I'll keep that in mind… I've got to get over there."

"Lansing."

Ric stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder, "Looking to take one last potshot at me, Mac?"

"No… maybe it's because I'm thinking about innocent kids, but for whatever reason I'm in a mood where I'm willing to tell you that I think you're on your way to getting what you want."

"Careful, commissioner, people might think that you actually like me."

"I wouldn't go that far," Mac muttered. He watched as Ric walked away, sitting in his chair once more. He realized that Ric and Damian were more alike than he thought they were, and Mac wasn't sure if that made him feel better about the situation, or worse.


	89. Female Charm

New York City, New York-

"Are you ready?"

"You make it seem like I haven't done this before… I've done it how many times today alone?"

"Maxie…"

"What?" She looked over at him as they stood by the stairs that would lead to yet another police building. Inside she would no doubt find people who were on the side of the law with her father, and the side of the law that people would think Sonny Corinthos to be on. Maxie wasn't an idiot. She wasn't blind to Sonny's flaws, but she knew that deep down Sonny was a decent person. She wanted him to do things that were a lot less illegal, everyone did, especially her boyfriend, but Sonny wasn't the type of person who would strike out at another man unless it was necessary, or provoked. He didn't go around killing people just for looking at him wrong. If he had, Damian would have been killed on the spot, before he even had a chance to say that he was Sonny's bastard child.

"If you don't feel safe doing this…"

"Why wouldn't I be safe?" Maxie did feel safe. She knew what Police Stations were for, they were to keep the people safe. "What about you?" She held his hand, feeling his fingers clasp around hers. "I know how you look at all the people who are inside the building, on the other side of the desk. Nobody is out to judge you."

"I wish I believed that."

"Why don't you?"

"Because they probably know who I am," he replied softly. "Justus asked me if I knew what I was getting into when I decided to publicly adopt my father's name into my own identity. Maybe Elias Zuniga doesn't have very much flack, especially on this side of the country, but Sonny Corinthos? He's in the papers almost every day, Maxie… and I know my name has been tossed around a few times."

"You don't do anything bad, you're not a criminal."

"They don't look at me as someone who hasn't done anything bad yet, Maxie. They look at me like I'm someone who is going to do something bad eventually… and I'm not completely sure they're wrong. I don't know what my limits are. I used to think that I could never do some of the things that I've done… I used to think that I could never turn a blind eye to the things that my dad does… I never thought…" he stalled, not wanting to say it.

Maxie could see the hesitation on his face and hear it in his voice. She knew what he was talking about. He didn't think that he would ever be able to take a life in cold blood, like he had done with Lorenzo Alcazar. But it was the only option. She would engrave that on her forehead if it helped get the point across. She knew it wasn't necessary. Damian needed to battle the demon that was haunting him on his own, and she could only promise to be there for him when he needed it.

"You see why I had to bring you?" Damian asked, finally stabilizing his mind after dealing with the trauma that came with the faintest remembrance of his actions. "They don't know me, but they think they do. Even if they know who you are they also know that you're the daughter of a police commissioner, that gives you plenty of brownie points."

"They also try and flirt with me… at least if they're in their twenties…"

"I noticed that."

"And you're not angry at them?"

"Why would I be angry at them?" Damian wondered, "They can want you all they want, but I know that I'm the one who has you… I'm the one who is lucky enough to merit your love."

"I wish things could be different. I wish we could be part of the crowd over in Times Square, celebrating the coming of a New Year…"

"It doesn't matter where we are, Maxie. We could be alone, we could be with a million people… all we need is each other."

She flashed a large smile as she wrapped her arm around his, "I couldn't agree more." Her happiness was smothered as a cold wind came. Shivering, she grabbed the collar of her jacket and moved it closer to her face. The snow was still coming down, and it seemed to be a lot more rapid than it was before. She didn't worry about it that much. It was New York, in December. It was going to snow.

He stood there for a moment before he gathered up the strength that it took to enter another building where he felt that all the eyes were on him. It didn't matter that they might not have been in actuality, all that mattered was the fact that he felt they were. If one person was actually looking at him and saying to himself 'That's Sonny Corinthos's son' then his worries were entirely justified. Justus should have told him more about the penalties of the name… but even if he knew about them, Damian knew that he would take the name in a heartbeat. It was his name, his father's name… a part of his identity.

The two young lovers walked inside the precinct building, not being noticed amid all the telephones ringing and the uniformed officers that were talking to each other, going over cases that still needed to be solved. It was New Years Eve in New York, probably one of the busier days of the year.

Maxie casually glanced over at her boyfriend. His eyes were closed. She knew that he didn't want to be there, and she didn't either. Words couldn't express how much she respected him for making the choice that he did. He was doing something that he didn't really want to do for a person that had never really liked him until only recently. He wasn't letting any bad blood that still existed between himself and Carly get in the way. It was a resolve that Maxie knew she could never have.

She stood on her tiptoes as she whispered into his ear, "Fifth time is the charm." They had been to four other police stations, none of them having any idea where John Durant was, none of them being helpful enough to try and find out where he could have been. New Yorkers had a stigma for being rude, and it was obvious why… they were.

Maxie left Damian a few feet behind her and headed toward the information desk. The phone had yet to stop ringing, it was starting to give her a headache, but she knew what she needed to do and she wouldn't fail in her mission. She stood in front of the desk, the woman behind it looking up at her with hazel eyes. Maxie smiled, which garnered no similar response from the woman, but she did put a finger up, signaling that she would be with Maxie in a moment.

The young girl tried not to listen in on the conversation that was being had by the woman at the desk and the person on the other end of the telephone, it was hard to hear what was going on, and even harder not to get a single viewpoint on the conversation. She used to do that with Mac when she was younger, listen in on the calls that he got when he was at home. It was a hard habit to break.

"Let me guess," the lady said as she put the phone back on the receiver, "somebody stole your car?"

"Excuse me?"

"Pretty girl like you must come from money. Did you leave your hot pink hummer unlocked and someone hotwired it?"

"No…"

"Then why are you here?"

"Look, lady, I know you're probably a little stressed out right now…"

"Well we can't all have a bunch of makeup on to hide our stress like you, doll."

"I'm looking for someone…"

"We haven't brought in anyone since yesterday afternoon. It's pretty empty."

"John Durant."

The name caught the woman's attention, as everyone knew it would. "Durant? What do you want Durant for?"

"I want to talk to him… is he here?"

"John Durant doesn't really like to spend a lot of his time in the station houses, girl. Classy man like him has better things to do."

"So… he's not here, then?"

"No, he isn't here…"

"Do you know where he is?"

"Why would I tell you something like that?"

Maxie knew that she did not like the older lady that she was speaking with. It wasn't Maxie's fault that she was getting older. She wasn't an ugly person, but maybe she just thought she was. "Because I'm asking?"

"Ruth, isn't it time for your lunch break?"

"I'm dealing with something right now, Dino."

"I'll finish it up, go enjoy your salad."

The woman, Ruth, groaned as she stood up from the chair, her motion sending the chair spinning around for a moment. She gave Maxie one more cold glare before she walked into a section of the station that Maxie couldn't see her in.

"Sorry about that," Dino took a seat, his smile apparent. "Ruth's got an unhealthy temper. I can assure you that her grudge wasn't personal. She just hates everyone."

"Dino… was it?"

"It's a nickname I've had since I was a kid. Loved the Flintstones…"

Maxie knew that he was trying to get on her good side. She didn't mind that he used a childish nickname, but she did mind that he was trying to hit on her. "My boyfriend and I are looking for John Durant."

The smile faded when he heard the taboo word. "What do you want with Durant?"

"Just to ask a few questions. Someone like him must be a big celebrity around places like this."

"Durant's a damned fine man… puts away a lot of horrible people because he's the only one who can finally get them at their own game." Dino's attentions were diverted over to the boy. He knew who Damian was, just as Damian had suspected, but he tried to play it cool. "he's not here, though. He has a lot of places that he needs to go, can't spend too much time at any one place."

"Do you know where he is?"

"At this very moment? No… but there is a place that he almost always likes to stop by every day… and since it's New Years Eve I can almost guarantee that he'll hit it up."

"Could you tell me where that is?"

"I don't think you're old enough to go in," Dino grinned. "You still look like you're a teenager…"

"I can wait for him outside," Maxie said coldly. She didn't want to be treated like a kid. She was better than that. "Please, Dino, just tell me."

"It's a bar… I'll give you the address. He usually stops in about four in the afternoon, no promises, though."

"It's better than nothing." Maxie looked over at the clock on the wall. If he was going to be there around four in the afternoon it gave her a little over an hour before they needed to make their way over. At least they could spend that hour doing something that didn't involve running around and looking for him.

"Here," Dino put the paper in front of her. "I don't know what you want him for, but I hope that you manage to get his attention. He's a busy man."

"I hope I can get his attention, too." She grabbed the paper. "Thank you, Dino… and stay away from Ruth."

"I make that my life mission."

Maxie turned around and walked towards Damian, who held the door open for her. "We have a little bit of time… I'm hungry. You think we can stop and get something to eat?"

"I think the information that you just got on John Durant is worth a meal. I'll even take you to a place where we don't have to order an extra value meal. But we can't go somewhere too busy…"

"I know."

Damian looked back at the closed door. He knew that Officer Dino was looking at him, but he wasn't sure if the nervous feeling he got was just because of his own anxiety, or if it was because Dino was planning something.


	90. The Problems Don't Go Away

Kelly's-

Mike knew a lot of the people who would frequent Kelly's. He prided himself on being able to put a name to so many faces. Before, when he was running away from everything, he never took the time to even make lasting friendships with people who might have proven to be good friends. All Mike Corbin cared about at that time was getting the money that he needed to pay off the loan sharks that were constantly after him. He'd long since gotten rid of his debt, but gambling was something that had always proven to be his worst vice. It had ruined his life more times than he wanted to admit, and Mike wanted nothing more than to be away from that horrid part of his life.

His first step towards atonement was getting a good job, one that actually gave him money and stability. Bobbie Spencer provided that for him as Manager and Cook at Kelly's. They were in-laws, but they were more than that. They had become good friends, even though they often found themselves at odds about their respective children.

Mike was good at feeling the emotions of the people around him, at least if he knew them somewhat well. He knew that there was something bothering Bobbie as she sat alone at a table, taking a small drink from her cup of coffee while Elizabeth walked around and helped the people who were eating. With no orders that needed immediate attention, Mike found that he had a moment that he could give to one of his dearest friends. He wadded up the towel and gently placed it on the counter.

Bobbie was still shaken by the confrontation that she had with Carly the day before. She found herself looking over her shoulder constantly, just in case her daughter was going to swoop in for another attack. She loved Carly, she would always love Carly, but it was hard, if not impossible, to understand what was going on inside of Carly's head more times than she would ever care to imagine.

"How's my favorite head nurse?"

Bobbie turned her attentions to Mike, giving a welcoming smile from her pain at his face, "I'm the only head nurse that you know…"

"Which is why you're my favorite," Mike replied with a trademark wink, "but even if I knew a thousand other head nurses, you'd still be my favorite."

"Really? What if Courtney were a head nurse? You'd have to say that you favored me over your daughter. I don't think I would believe you."

"Fine, if Courtney were a head nurse then there'd be a tie for my favorite. You would both win."

"We've already both won, Mike," Bobbie patted his hand, "because we both have a place in your heart, and it means a lot to both of us."

"Bobbie… as your friend I feel that I need to make sure that you're all right," Mike sat down next to her, spinning the chair around, straddling it, leaning against the end. "Are you afraid that something's going to happen to Morgan?"

"No… well, of course I'm afraid that something's going to happen to Morgan, or to Michael, or anyone else I care about… but that's not really what's bothering me right now."

"Then what is?"

She turned her head away, not wanting to look into his ice blue eyes, knowing that if she let herself get caught in them she would tell him everything. Mike might have been able to keep her secrets, in fact, Bobbie was sure that if she asked him to he would, but she didn't want to put him in that position. Placing Damian in that position was already weighing in on her conscience enough.

"It's not something you can talk to me about, is it?" Mike could see that she was being hesitant. A part of her past, maybe? Mike couldn't hold it against Bobbie for not wanting to talk about the darker parts of her upbringing, from being raised with Ruby to working as a call girl. Someone like that didn't have many options, but Bobbie found a way to beat the system that she would have likely been forced to continue for the rest of her life. Mike was proud of her for that, and he only wished that she could be proud of herself for the same thing.

"Thank you for understanding…"

"I don't understand, Bobbie," Mike corrected her. "I'll never understand why you don't know that you can talk to us about anything and we'll accept what you did, we won't love you any less."

"I know that, deep down, but I don't want to take the chance of being wrong."

"I respect your decision…"

"That's all I ask…"

"But I don't have to like it," he quickly added. "It's your life, Bobbie, I can't tell you how to run it. I'm not your father, and even if I was your father you're an adult now… believe me, I've had that fact hammered into my head more than a few times with my own children."

"We both have…"

"You still have Lucas."

"He won't be around much longer," Bobbie said with a heavy sigh. "Besides, I hardly ever see him as it is. I probably shouldn't have sent him away to that private school."

"You were doing what you thought was the best thing for your child's future, Bobbie. Private schools have a better education rate, we both know this. If I would have been around I would have almost demanded that my children be sent to private school… but I don't think we'd be able to get the money."

"Still, I can't help but think that he might resent me."

"Do you tell him that you love him whenever you see or talk to him?"

"Of course I do!" She was shocked to hear Mike even think that she didn't tell her son such things. "I love Lucas just as much as I love Carly… he knows that, I know he knows that."

"Then why would you ever think that he might resent you?"

"Because I worry…"

"You don't have anything to worry about," Mike reached over and gave her a pat on the back. "You don't make the mistakes that I did, Bobbie. Sonny hates me because I left so many times. I would come back every now and then, filling his head with lies that I really wanted to keep… I don't think he ever really knew how much I loved him, because I didn't tell him enough… or I didn't make it obvious."

"Kid's grow up," Bobbie said with a nod. "Sometimes they can stay the same… other times they can change completely." She found herself looking over at Elizabeth. "I've seen that girl grow up from a young lady into the beautiful woman that she is now. I watched her fall in love with Lucky, watched her heart break when we thought he was dead. She's one of the strongest people I've ever met."

"She has the most beautiful soul…"

"I can't help but think that she should have more out of life."

"You're not the only one…"

"When she came to me looking for a job, looking for a job here of all places, doing something like bussing tables, I thought for sure that it was something she was doing just so she could get away from her problems. I'm not unsure of the fact that I was wrong, because I still think that she was running, but I didn't believe that she would ever think that it was something she could keep on doing."

"You don't think she's running anymore?"

"At least not away from something… or someone." Bobbie stopped staring at Elizabeth, not wanting to bring attention to the fact that they were talking about her, even though it was a very small restaurant and if she wanted to hear them she probably could.

"Ric…" as always, there was the venomous tone that came with the name. He couldn't help it. No matter what he tried to do, no matter how hard he tried to forgive, Mike couldn't just ignore the fact that Ric was someone who had done so many horrible things to his family.

"Mike…"

"I'm sorry, Bobbie, but I can't do it. I can't do it for him… I can't forgive Ric for his sins."

"You shouldn't have to, I haven't forgiven him, I won't."

"He kidnapped your daughter while she was pregnant with our grandson. You have more reason to hate him than I do."

"But I can see that the people around me that I love deeply actually care for him…"

"And that's enough to keep your anger in check?"

"It has to be," she found herself imparting advice to Mike, who had come to the table seeking to do the same thing for her. Funny how things ended up changing at the drop of a hat. "If I'm alone with Ric… I don't know what will come out of my mouth, and for his sake I hope we're never alone for too long because I can't make any promises about what I will or won't do to him when I see him… but if Elizabeth is near him, or Damian, I try to at least be accepting of the fact that he really is a positive influence in their lives."

"He poisoned Elizabeth!"

"She's forgiven him…"

"She shouldn't have."

"It's not our call to make. The only people who we can account for are ourselves, Mike. We can't make up other people's minds for them, that isn't fair to anyone, least of all the person who we're stripping the freedom of choice from."

Mike found himself looking into Bobbie's soul, trying to understand what gave her the strength that she was displaying. What drove her to accepting Ric Lansing as a human being when everything that he did seemed to scream of evil intentions. Mike tried his hardest to find that thread, but he failed.

"And look at what he's done for your grandson," Bobbie continued. "He's saved Damian's life… not once, but twice, and he helped the boy get out of prison when… when Scotty tried to bring him down." She hadn't thought about Scott Baldwin that often, but when she tried to say his name the first time she couldn't help it. She had seen him spiral down the slide of torment… and she couldn't save him. It was one of her deepest regrets.

"He's probably just waiting for the perfect time to strike. He'll find the best time to attack Damian. I bet Ric was salivating at the fact that he had somehow managed to gain the boy's trust."

"He was, Mike…"

Mike felt his blood run cold, "Elizabeth…"

"I'm not even going to try and listen to you say that you didn't mean for me to hear what you were saying," she couldn't hold back her disappointment. "But I won't let you talk about him and leave him defenseless while he isn't even here. You're right, though. He was very happy when he found out that Damian actually trusted him… but do you know why? It wasn't because he has some dark plan in mind for his nephew, it's because for the first time in his life Ric has felt accepted by a member of his family. That means so much to him, you can't even understand…"

"I do understand, Elizabeth. Sonny doesn't even call me anything but 'Mike,' and it hurts me."

"Then maybe you should take a moment to think about what's going on in Ric's head. Sonny only calls him something that even hints at their bond when he can use it against Ric… Michael still calls him 'the bad man,' and I don't even want to think about what goes on inside of their heads when they see him."

Mike couldn't understand how Elizabeth could be so easily manipulated into seeing Ric as a decent person. "Can you blame them?"

"No, I can't, because their hatred, their mistrust of him is justified, but so is my love. I've seen him change… I've seen him try to do something different with his life, even though nobody has ever believed that he could do it, even me at first. The first person to really see him for what he's become is his nephew… Damian means a lot to Ric… more than any of us could ever hope to understand."

"I hope you're right, sweetie," Mike stood up from his chair, spinning it around again and pushing it underneath the table where it belonged. "But if he does anything to hurt Damian…"

"I will be the first one to bring him down for it," Elizabeth said confidently. "I don't want to see anyone get hurt… and I won't. I trust Ric, I trust his intentions, but if it ends with me being manipulated by him again… don't worry, I'll make sure that nobody gets hurt, except for me… and quite possibly him." She was silent for a moment, letting the anger wash over her and she tried to clear her head. She pulled out the ticket from the pad and handed it to Mike, "Here, we got an order."

"I'll take care of it."

Bobbie watched Mike head into the back to cook the food. Her break was coming to an end, and she wasn't any happier about her situation. She pulled the purse from over the back of the chair and slipped it over her shoulder. "Elizabeth… I don't think I'll see you again, so Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year to you, too, Bobbie."

Bobbie started to walk away, but stood still and spoke to the young woman once more, "For your sake, I hope you're right about him."

Elizabeth heard the door close as she looked into the void, "So do I…"


	91. Slim Options

Park-

"We've already been here…"

"Hmm?" Dillon and Georgie stopped walking when Dillon brought them to a forced halt.

Georgie looked into his eyes, "You weren't even paying attention to what I said, were you?"

"No… I wasn't…"

She couldn't believe that he was going to tell her that. "How… how could you say that?"

"Because it's the truth," he ran a finger through her hair, feeling the curl as he went down the side of her face. "I wasn't paying attention to anything that you said, like the fact that you just said we've already been to the park, because I was too busy looking at you, being enchanted by your beauty. You know why I don't care about the fact that we've already been to the park? Because when I'm with you it doesn't matter where we've been Georgie, we could spend the whole day in the same place, and all that would matter is you…"

She blushed, the compliment being completely unexpected, but very welcome. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to jump to conclusions."

"It's all right. You just need to know that no matter what you're always going to be in my mind and my heart… no matter how much time I spend worrying about my family, or my friends, or whatever it is that is on my mind you're always going to be there."

"I know," she tried to hold back the tears. Sometimes she realized just how selfish she could be around Dillon. The way that she wanted him to focus on her and her alone… it wasn't fair to him. He had plenty of reasons to just not be with her any longer, but he stayed, because he loved her like she loved him.

"Besides," Dillon continued, "this is Port Charles… it's not like we have a lot of places that we can go. We can go to the docks, which we have, we can go to Kelly's, which we have, we can go to the hospital… which we haven't because I bet if you show your lovely face at the hospital they'll find a way to make you do some impromptu volunteer work. We can't go to my place, we can't go to your place, and I sure as hell don't want to go over to the mansion…"

"Have you even seen your family since Christmas?"

"I'll call them sometime tonight and say Happy New Year. My mother hasn't tried to drag me over for a New Years Eve party… so I should count my blessings."

"Maybe you should go…"

"What? Why would you say something like that?"

"Because they're still your family," Georgie didn't like many of the Quartermaine's… she didn't dislike them, but too many of them, Edward and Tracy in particular, wanted her to stay away from Dillon, which was something that she found to be completely unfair. "Because this is a time for togetherness…"

"I spent Christmas with my family. I want to spend New Years Eve with the girl that I love… are you going to deny me that?"

"Not when you put it like that, no…"

"Good, because I would be really hurt if you said you didn't want to be with me…"

"I want to be with you, Dillon, I always want to be with you."

The teenagers watched as a pair of their fellow classmates walked by. Dillon and Georgie weren't very popular, and it was by choice. Dillon could have easily used the weight of being a Quartermaine in his favor, and Georgie had plenty of people who knew about her because of her sister, but they liked keeping to themselves. Besides, Kyle, while he was still in school, was hell bent on making sure that Dillon in particular never managed to garner more than a blip on the social scale. He thought that it hurt Dillon, because he knew that it would hurt him. Sadly, for Kyle, it was the furthest from the truth. Dillon didn't care if he was the most popular or unpopular person in school, he just wanted to get it over with, soon enough he would have his wish.

Georgie and Dillon both knew who they were, at least by name, face and reputation. They hardly ever talked to Dillon and only spoke to Georgie when they needed her help with some assignment that was really easy, but neither of them were really ever in the mood to do something that involved the use of brainpower. They were high school elite, jock and female-jock, perfect for each other, at least until they graduated and never spoke to one another again. The two didn't even bother paying Dillon and Georgie any attention, not that the two cared.

"Sometimes I wonder if we have a sign that says we're lepers on our backs… you want to check for me?"

Georgie suppressed a loud laugh, instead emitting a quiet giggle as she looked over behind Dillon's back. "There's no sign, not even a 'kick me.' You sure your theory has weight?"

"I was just being humorous, you know, because that's part of what I do."

"And you do it so well…"

"Thank you, I've had a lot of practice."

Georgie's grin faded as she watched the two of them heading into the distance. She didn't really envy either of them, they had a frivolous relationship that would fade as soon as one or both of them went out of the limelight, they weren't like her and Dillon. But there was one thing that they did have that she and Dillon didn't, something that Georgie had always wanted.

"Honestly, the only reason I'm ever going to our class reunion in ten years is so I can see people like that and see how they got fat and ended up having seven illegitimate babies… or getting angry at the fact that they're more successful than me, one of the two."

He was expecting a laugh, or a comment, something that showed Georgie was dealing with the shunning. Maybe it didn't hurt Dillon, but it might have hurt Georgie. She had long since gotten past the phase in her life where she felt that she 'needed' to be popular, but that didn't mean that it completely went away. "Georgie… are you okay?"

"Dillon…"

"What, what is it?"

"We've never… you know… ever. We've been together for a long time now… but we've never done it…"

"Sex?" Of course it was sex, but Dillon felt that he needed to say it anyway. "Georgie… do you remember what happened each and every time that we tried to have sex when we first started going out? Something happened. Something always happened that managed to ruin the moment."

"We stopped trying…"

"Because we realized that the gods of teenage sex were against us!"

"So you're saying that you don't want to have sex with me, even right now?"

"I'm a guy, Georgie… I always want to have sex with you… okay, that sounded really, really bad… but you know what I mean. I want you, Georgie, I don't want anyone else but you and that's something that won't change."

"But…"

"But you told me that you weren't ready when we almost got to do it, remember? You told me that you didn't feel that it was right. You asked me to wait, told me that when you were ready to take that step we would, and I respected your decision then, just like I'm respecting it now."

"Dillon… I…"

"Georgie, the last thing I want you to do is think that you have to have sex with me because everyone else is doing it. I want our first time to be something special, something that brings the two of us together…"

"We can have that now."

"Georgie…" Dillon grabbed his girlfriend by the sides of her head. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that you want to have sex with me."

"I do want to have sex with you…"

"Then tell me that you're ready…"

Georgie tried to look at him, the words started to form out of her mouth, but she found her gaze wandering down, knowing that she couldn't lie to him. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be," he whispered as he kissed her on the forehead. "The last thing I've ever wanted for you was to think that you needed to do something like that just to make me happy. I'm happy being with you, happy holding your hand, happy laying on your couch, fully clothed, watching a movie. You make me happy, Georgie, it doesn't matter what we're doing."

"What did I do to deserve you?"

"Accepted me for who I am… something that nobody ever really did before you. My mom was always trying to shape me into her little Quartermaine heir, my grandfather was always telling me that what I was doing was stupid… you were the first person who said, 'Hey, Dillon, I like you because you're a funny guy with crazy hair.' That means a lot to me."

"I don't think I ever said that…"

"You're ruining the moment."

"Hey, Dillon, I like you because you're a funny guy with crazy hair…" she kissed him on the lips before pulling away. "But that isn't the only reason why I like you. I like you because you're the best person that I've ever met."

"You don't really get out much."

"It doesn't matter. I could know everyone and they wouldn't compare to you…"

"I want to be with you every time the clock strikes midnight on New Years Eve, Georgie…"

"We haven't broken tradition yet, have we?" They had been together, through some strange way, even if it was just by a phone call, for the time they had been together.

"And I don't intend on starting now."

"But we still don't know what we're going to do."

"I still say we try and crash the party…"

"Sonny and Jason won't like that."

"But they like me, so maybe they won't shoot me."

"I don't want to take that chance, not on your life."

"I'm sure we'll find something to do," Dillon looked up at the sky. "I don't think the snow is going to die down… if anything, it looks like it's going to get worse, so staying outside the whole time is out of the question… and I refuse to spend New Years Eve at Kelly's…"

"I like it there…"

"I know you do, but that doesn't mean I want to be there, and I don't think you do, either."

"We'll think of something… and even if we end up at Kelly's, at least we'll be together." She leaned against his shoulder as they walked once more, knowing that he would keep waiting until she felt that she was ready. She wouldn't pressure him. What more could she ask for?


	92. Flawed Heroes

Journeylove- I agree, Courtney on the show is being stupid and staying with Jax. I love JaSam very much, but, like you, Journey will be special to me because it came first and it was what I grew to love. I've always liked Ric… which is odd, since I like Ric as bad and I like Ric as good… and I don't really have a favorite version of Ric, I just like Ric. I don't foresee Lucas coming into the story anytime soon, but never say never.

Story-

New York City, New York-

"What'd Mac say this time?"

"The same thing he's always said," Maxie put the phone in her purse as she came from the corner. She didn't want Damian overhearing the conversation that she had with her father, sometimes Mac chose to be a little colorful in his biased against her boyfriend. She knew that Damian appeared that he didn't care, but she didn't want to risk his feelings getting hurt. Sometimes she just wished that her dad could accept the boy for who he was. She couldn't see many flaws, and none of the flaws that he did have were exactly crippling. He didn't make her do things she didn't want to do, didn't pressure her into stealing for him. Sure, he had somewhat of a self-esteem problem, but that was to be expected for someone who had grown up feeling alone despite having a family that was as large as his.

"I'd try and do an impersonation, but I don't think I could do him justice."

"I've never heard you try and do an impersonation of anyone…"

"Well, that's because I'm pretty bad at it."

"You wouldn't try? Not even for me?"

"Not in public, no." He really wasn't very good at the whole impersonation thing. People had tried to get him to do it as a kid, to open up, use his imagination. It didn't work out very well.

"Shy boy…"

"That's me," Damian moved the collar of his jacket up, trying hard not to repeat the scene that he had done while he was looking for the Christmas tree with Dillon, but it was hard. The snow was coming down harder than he thought it would and he was getting colder by the second.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, Maxie, you know that." While it was true that Maxie could ask him anything, it was not true that he would always give her the truth. Sometimes he couldn't. She understood that there were things that he couldn't talk about freely because of who he was, because of who his father was, but as long as she kept from asking those kinds of questions everything seemed like it would be okay.

"Being here… in New York… does it make you miss Los Angeles?"

He tried to keep a blank face, and for a few seconds he succeeded, then, the slightest crack in his armor came as a grin appeared on his mouth. He started to laugh, a soft but hearty laugh, his shoulders shaking with the laughter, eyes closed.

Maxie didn't understand why he had a sudden fit of laughter. Was he laughing at her? He had better not have been. She didn't like being laughed at, especially when she was trying to be honest. When she was doing something that she wanted to be funny she was all right with being laughed at, but she wasn't trying to be funny. "Why are you laughing?"

"The question… it's not what I expected to hear from you," he stopped laughing, taking a moment to breathe so that he didn't continue giggling. "I don't miss Los Angeles, Maxie… you know how much I hate being in big, crowded cities. That's why I laughed. The idea that I would miss a place like that just struck me as funny. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, really…"

"I just meant if it reminded you of Los Angeles… and your family."

"It reminds of me of LA, yeah, but that doesn't mean I like it. As for my family… I miss my grandparents, of course, but the rest of them… not really."

"You don't talk about them very often, even your grandparents…"

"I try and keep the two separated as much as possible…"

"What do you mean, 'the two?'"

"My life before I came to New York and my life after. I came here to find my dad, Maxie, you know that, but I also came to get a fresh start on my life, find a place where I didn't feel like I was hampered by my past… where I could be something, someone, more than the kid who lost his mother to cancer and never had a father. I can't even run away from it when I go to the other end of the country, as you can see with my recent conversation with Braden."

"They're still a part of your life… you shouldn't deny them the right to be in your heart."

"They'll always be important to me. If they need me to go back to Los Angeles for something, no matter how small it might be, I'll be on the first plane back over… but I won't stay forever. I'm not that person anymore, and I don't want to be."

"What's so bad about being that person?"

"A lot of things… most of all, the fact that if I was that person again, I wouldn't have you in my life…"

"You could move back, I'd still love you…"

"But I wouldn't expect you to keep on loving me while we were separated by three thousand miles."

"Are you saying I can't be faithful?"

"I'm saying that you shouldn't be burdened by my decisions if they take me away from you. It's like what I told you when I thought I could go to jail… I'll always love you, but first and foremost I'll always want you to be happy, even if it means that you're not happy with me."

Maxie wasn't sure how she should respond to what he was saying. On the one hand it was touching that he would always vow to love her and keep her happiness ahead of his, but on the other he was, in some small way, insulting her ability to stay loyal to the one person who had understood and accepted her.

Rather than dwell on the ideas that were being tossed around, or worse, get into an argument, Maxie changed the subject as quickly as she possibly could, focusing on their mission. "We should head over to the bar. We've only got like twenty minutes… who knows how long it can take to make it over there with the crowd being this big."

"You're right." He knew she was avoiding something, but he let her. He didn't want to get into it either. He didn't want to lose her. Maxie was too important to him for something so stupid to rip them apart. "Let's go…"

Outside of Patrick's-

"This the place?" Damian asked as he stood outside of the bar with the very distinctive four leaf clover that was painted on the window.

Maxie looked at the piece of paper that had been provided to her from Dino, reading the address and looking at the name of the establishment. "Seems to be, unless the guy was lying to us."

"I didn't think about that…"

"I don't think he was," she commented, trying to remain positive. "He seemed like a nice guy…"

"He was flirting with you."

"All the men that we've talked to today have been flirting with me, that's why I'm able to get information." She got a sinister smile on her face, "Jealous?"

"Only a little."

"What am I looking for?" Maxie didn't know what she was supposed to do when she saw John Durant. What was she supposed to say? 'How would you feel if you had a daughter in Port Charles who was married to Sonny Corinthos and had your two grandsons?' It didn't seem like the best way to strike up a conversation. "I don't know what I'm supposed to ask."

"Just talk to him. I'll be close enough where I can hear him. I just want to get a feel for the guy… see if he could be a good grandfather to my brothers. Carly can handle not having a great father, but I don't know if Michael and Morgan can deal with their grandfather not being a good person. The only one they've ever had is Mike, and while his fathering skills are… slim at best, he was always a good grandfather to Michael, and to me."

"I'm getting nervous…"

"I think you can handle it, Maxie. You're smarter than you think you are, and braver than you think you are, too. I have complete faith in you."

"Can I get a good luck kiss?"

"You can get two…"

"I feel special."

Damian wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and kissed her on the lips, pulling away as he looked into her beautiful blue eyes, "You are special." He once more pressed his lips onto hers, this time lingering in a long moment, as if he didn't want to pull away. There was no doubt in his mind or in his heart that on some level he did not want to pull away. When he was with Maxie he felt the most complete.

"You'd better go find some place to hide," Maxie was regretful that she had to pull him away from her, since it was the last thing she wanted to do, but it was necessary. "We've only got a few minutes before he comes."

Pulling himself away from her, ignoring the feeling of emptiness that came with the separation, Damian looked around for a safe hiding place, finding a nearby alley which he could hide behind, cloaking his body from any sort of detection, or so he hoped. Finding a secret hiding spot had never been his strongest point.

Maxie dragged her foot on the ground as she waited for him to come. What if he wasn't going to come? What if Dino really did lie to her? Why would he do something like that? She just wanted to talk with him. Sometimes Maxie hated men, the way that they wouldn't give you something that you wanted if you didn't give them what they wanted, which was almost always sex. "Stupid men…"

"Miss… I hope that your bashing of my gender is specific to a few people… I'd like to think that we're not all stupid."

She was caught by surprise, stuttering as she attempted to pull her foot out of her mouth. The task became even more difficult when she realized that he was right in front of her. John Durant, his hat over his head, cold blue eyes apparently staring into her soul. "I… I…"

"You weren't, by chance, trying to sneak into the bar, were you?" John smiled, a slight chuckle escaping from his lips. "Because you certainly don't look like you're of drinking age to me. Some people think that they can get away with it, but Patrick tries really hard to make sure that there are no minors in his bar at any time, especially since I can come in whenever I feel like it."

"No," she shook her head rapidly, "I don't drink…" at least she had stopped. She didn't want to go down that path again.

"A wise choice… but that does beg the question as to why you, a beautiful young lady, are standing out in the cold snow on New Years Eve, in front of a bar."

"I was waiting for someone…"

"Someone?"

"You."

John's eyebrow lifted up, "Why would you be waiting for me, miss?"

"Jones… Maxie Jones."

"I'm sorry, should that name mean something to me?" John had thought about the name, the first name, the last name. He knew plenty of Jones', they were pretty common in the States, and since he was in New York City there were probably a few hundred of them running around.

"My dad is Mac Scorpio."

"The commissioner of Port Charles?" Durant tried to keep the snide comments about how Mac couldn't do his job, if he could, Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan would be behind bars, where they belonged."

"Yes, that's my dad."

"Interesting… what can I do for you, Maxie?"

"I… I…"

"Why don't we cut the formalities?" John looked around. "I know why you're really here…"


	93. Misunderstood

Note: Yesterday, was being a bitch, so we couldn't update, so you get two chapters, sorry about the lateness of the chapters being posted, but was still being a bitch earlier… and, I just got to page 500, thought you would like to know that.

Story-

Damian felt his heart skip a beat when he heard John Durant call Maxie on the real reason as to why she was there. It must have been Dino. He had called Durant and told him that Sonny's son was looking for him and that he brought a pretty girl to save face. If anything, Durant probably thought that Damian was holding Maxie hostage, forcing her to do his dirty work because of the fact that she was the police commissioner's daughter. He tried to stay hidden, fighting the urge to reveal himself, to save Maxie before it was too late, but he stayed put, hoping that she would find a way to recover. If she couldn't, he would go to her aid, but unless it was necessary he wasn't going to throw out the entire plan on a whim.

"What… what do you mean?" Maxie's voice was quivering as she tried to keep her eyes from looking back into the alley and giving away her boyfriend. It took everything that she had to not run away from the man that was staring at her with his cold eyes.

"Don't play coy with me, Miss Jones… I know a ruse when I see one."

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Mister Durant…"

"Your father, and quite possibly that incompetent district attorney that you have in Port Charles, want my help in bringing down Corinthos and Morgan, but they're too proud to actually ask for the help themselves, so they sent you to do their dirty work…"

Maxie rested her shoulders, at ease with the fact that Durant thought that she was there for a reason that was the furthest from the truth. She wasn't even looking to help her dad, or Ric for that matter.

John smiled sadistically, "I have to admit, it's kind of pathetic that they can't own up to their own sloppy mistakes. I've thought of plenty of ways that they could have used to take those two down, I've even offered my help to them a few times, but each time they rejected my offer, thinking that they were too good for my help… well look at them now."

"I'm not here for them."

"Sure you aren't, sweetie," John laughed. "I have to admit, they were smart… it's really hard for me to say no to someone so cute and innocent like you."

"I'm really not here for them, honest…"

Durant figured that he would play along, ever mindful of the fact that he was still stringing Maxie by the chain. He knew the real reason why she was there, but it was easy to play the girl, she was so doe eyed. "Then why are you here?"

"It's true that my dad knows who you are, he looks up to you, admires you for what you've done…"

"It's a compliment to be held in the highest regard by Mac Scorpio. At least he's stopped worshiping the cartoon cops who still seem a little more competent at the job than the Port Charles police force…"

"They do their job, Mister Durant," Maxie said with a scowl. The man wasn't just insulting her father, he was insulting Lucky Spencer and all the other people who put the badge on in defense of Port Charles. Sure, there were more than a few times where they had botched up the job, but she was willing to bet that the ratio was a lot bigger in New York, something Durant probably didn't want to admit.

"But do they do it well?"

"Better than could be expected… I couldn't do what they do. I couldn't put on a badge, a uniform, and pledge my life to protecting people, knowing full well that each time I went out I could come back in a body bag. I'm not that brave, no matter how hard I try and tell myself that I would be, I know that deep down I would freeze."

"At least you're honest about that. I commend you for that quality."

Maxie knew that she didn't like John Durant. He obviously had a huge ego problem that needed to be dealt with. She wished he would come to Port Charles, that he would try and find a way to take Sonny and Jason down, and then he would be stopped, because Sonny and Jason wouldn't be caught and he would look like a failure. At that moment, Maxie realized just how deep the mob ran into her mind… before Damian came around she wouldn't have cared if Sonny and Jason got caught, she probably would have wanted them to get caught. Maxie wasn't sure how she felt about her new feeling towards the two people who were listed as the highest public enemies in Port Charles, but it was an argument that was best saved for another time.

"So you just wanted to see one of your dad's heroes?"

"And tell my dad that his 'hero' really isn't all that great," she replied spitefully. "Heroes are supposed to be modest… you're anything but."

"You've got moxie, I like that…"

"I'll try and get rid of it, then." She didn't really want to have any sort of trait that John Durant would like.

"My, you've got a mouth on you…"

"I'm a teenager, what are you expecting?"

"I'm expecting that a daughter of an officer of the law would know how to treat one of her superiors properly."

"You're not my superior, Mister Durant… you're not even superior to my father, or to Ric Lansing. They might not have as many high profile victories as you, but they somehow manage to at least be good people at heart… you're not."

"You can tell how my heart is just by spending two minutes with me?"

"I'm a good judge of character…"

John sprung his trap, tiring of the banter that he was sharing with Maxie. If she wasn't so corrupted by the mob he might have thought about talking to her, getting to know her better, but Sonny Corinthos had infected her as he had infected so many others. "Then why are you covering for your mobster prince boyfriend?"

"What are you talking about now?"

"Come on, Maxie," Damian whispered from his cover, leaning against the brick wall, eyes looking up at the snow filled skies. "Don't blow it."

"You think I don't pay attention to what goes on in Port Charles, Miss Jones?" Durant laughed as he got closer to her, "I pay attention to everything that goes on in the Country if it involves the mob, and sometimes if it doesn't. I might keep my focus here, but that doesn't really matter, does it? Crime is universal, and it is my job to stomp it out wherever it may be."

"How does that bring my, as you put it 'mobster prince boyfriend' into play?"

"I know that you're involved with Damian Corinthos, Miss Jones. I'm very disappointed in you, and even more disappointed in your father for letting you associate with scum like that. It can only lead to your untimely demise, like it almost did when you went to Los Angeles, the unwilling captive of that crazed psychopath, Faith Rosco."

"How…"

"News travels fast, Maxie," Durant boasted. "And I happen to be very involved with the news that involves certain aspects of the criminal life."

"That doesn't prove anything…"

"Open your eyes, girl. Can't you see just how dangerous your little boyfriend is? He's not worth your time… you're only going to get hurt the more that you're around him. I'm surprised that you're not already dead…"

"The same could be said of you."

"Your birthfather's spirit runs through your veins." He knew of Frisco Jones, he'd heard the stories of the dashing and suave man that could make the impossible happen. He had a fire in him that was apparent in Maxie as well. "Hopefully you've managed to get his luck as well."

"I don't need luck…"

"Why don't you let your boyfriend come out of hiding? I know he's here, Maxie… I've been doing this too long to fall for something so juvenile."

Damian wasn't going to let Maxie take the fall for his decision. Bobbie wouldn't want her to be in danger either. If the only way to save Maxie was to keep her from being seen alone, he didn't have a choice. "I got the information that I needed from just being this close to you, Mister Durant…"

"Ah, there he is… Sonny's bastard."

"If you're trying to hurt me you're going to need to try a lot harder." The truth was that he was a bastard child… nothing was going to change that, but it didn't mean that he wasn't loved, that he wasn't welcomed.

"Your father sent you to try and get some information on me, I take it?"

"You're going to believe whatever you want to believe," Damian stood next to Maxie. "Just like you think that I'm a danger to my girlfriend… it doesn't matter what anyone says, if you think that my father sent me to do some scouting on you then that's what you're going to think."

"Should I be afraid of you pulling out a gun on me? Even though we're in the middle of a very public place… I don't think that would stop you."

"If you read the reports on me, which I'm sure you have, you'll know that people don't think I'm capable of doing anything that you assume I am capable of doing…"

"Reports are just words, I only go with what I see… what I see is the Corinthos in you, and in seeing that I know what you're capable of, deep down inside."

"I'm capable of love… are you?"

Durant was silent before he spoke once more, "You're amusing… I didn't think you could be amusing. Perhaps I second guessed you."

"Maybe you did."

John Durant walked towards the door, "We've had our little meeting, Damian. I'm sure you can tell your father that I'm onto him… if he wants to take me down he's going to need to try a lot harder. And, Maxie, remember what I said. Just be careful… I'll know if you end up the causality in a mob war… make sure you don't."

Maxie waited for him to walk into the bar, scowling each time he looked back. "I hate that man… now I see where Carly gets her ego problem from."

"Maxie…"

"No, really, think about it. She thinks that she's the best thing since sliced bread, and so does he. No wonder they're related…"

"I'm just glad that he doesn't realize what I really came here to do…"

"He was mean to you…"

"I knew he would be, but I couldn't let him keep on attacking you. You don't deserve that…"

"I just want to go in there and rip out his throat!"

"That would be illegal, and messy… but I wouldn't hold it against you." Damian pulled out his cell phone, "Come on, we've got the information that we need, let's just go home." The phone rang, "Yeah, this is Damian Corinthos… we're ready to depart. Wait… what do you mean? I see… thank you."

"What is it?"

"The snow… it's too thick, we can't leave New York City until it dies down…"

Maxie lowered her eyes, sighing unhappily, "Mac isn't going to like this." She feared how she was going to explain it, knowing that Mac would probably say it was Damian's fault that there was an act of god that kept them together. Sometimes her dad could be very… biased in his beliefs.


	94. Don't Want To Grow Up

Corinthos Household-

While Jason didn't really want to go and have a social night, even one that was so close to his home with the people that he actually cared about, he knew that he couldn't get out of it. He had already given his word that he would go along with the idea that Carly had for a party, and that maybe, just maybe, he would have a good time while he was with his best friends and his wife. But promises were never something that Jason Morgan made unless he was absolutely sure that he would keep them. He couldn't promise Carly that everything would be all right at any time because he knew that deep down something would probably happen that would make the promise not come true, and he didn't want to think that he had caused her hopes to be crushed.

Carly's hope, however, were anything but crushed when she saw him walk into the house with his wife by his side. She smiled at Jason before looking over at Courtney, as if mentally asking if Courtney had won the battle against Jason's stubbornness. The smile on Courtney's face showed Carly that she had indeed been victorious. Carly, silent as she could possibly be, walked over to Jason and gave him a hug, whispering in his ear, "Thank you…"

Jason returned the hug lightly, barely a pat on Carly's back. Courtney wouldn't be that jealous of the fact that they had embraced. Sometimes she looked like she was jealous of the bond that they shared, and maybe on some level she was, but Jason knew that she was all too aware of the fact that Carly and Jason had a bond that nobody else could ever have. It was theirs, it was special, but it didn't, in any way, make the sacred vows that he had made to his wife any less poignant. If there were vows that would be made between lifelong friends, Jason and Carly would have made them a long time ago.

"I know how important this is to you," his voice didn't need to be a whisper, Jason, by default, tended to speak in a soft and soothing tone unless he was enraged, something that rarely happened. Jason was the epitome of calm and collected, something that was a very vital part of the life that he led. Sonny couldn't be anywhere near as collected as Jason was, even if he tried. Conversely, Jason couldn't match the vengeful passion that Sonny could sometimes unleash. Maybe, just maybe, Jason was afraid of that dark part of Sonny's soul… Carly and Courtney certainly were, and maybe Sonny was, too.

"I want you to realize how much you mean to me… you and Courtney."

"You never needed to say anything about it, Carly," he replied. "We've always known how much you care about us… we've never doubted it."

"And Jason and I can only hope that you know just how much we care about you and Sonny and the boys." Courtney smiled, looking like she belonged on the runway in some sparkling gown as opposed to the stark drabness of the penthouse. She stood out like a beacon of pure beauty, angelic in her nature. "You're our family, Carly… and family means everything to us."

"You know… before I met you people I didn't even really know what family meant," Carly moved over and leaned against the arm of the couch. "I mean, I had my adopted family… and deep down I loved them, I still do, I'll always be grateful to them for what they did. They gave me a home… maybe not the best home in the world, but it was better than nothing… but I didn't understand what it truly meant to be bonded by love for people until I met you, Jase… and later when I met you, Courtney. You're the best family that I could ever hope for."

"Don't get all weepy on us," Courtney, trying to hold back her own tears, being so touched by Carly's confession, stood by her friend, "You're going to ruin the mood…"

"All right," Carly waved her hands in front of her eyes, hoping to fan away the tears before they started streaming down her face like she was some animated character on one of Michael's cartoon shows, "No tears tonight…"

Jason watched the two most important women in his life from a safe distance. Courtney would always go the extra mile for Carly, and the same could be said if the situations were reversed, but Jason knew that there was some part of Carly's soul that was crying because of her current situation. The need to know who her birthfather was had long since consumed Carly's entire existence. She was like that. Carly went headfirst into a cause, even if it was something that she probably should have treaded around with caution. Caution was never something that Carly could really understand. She was setting herself up for a huge fall, one that Jason wasn't sure he could pick up the pieces from when she hit rock bottom, nor was he sure he could even save her from falling.

"So what do you guys think of the room?" Carly tried to present the reorganized furniture with a sweeping motion of her hand. "Sonny seems to be okay with it… I didn't have to fight him."

"Miracles happen," Courtney quipped, knowing how stubborn her brother could be. She loved Sonny for the strength of his decisiveness, even when it worked against him or the people that he loved. Sonny latched onto an idea and didn't let go, like a pit bull with lockjaw. Still, they weren't there to trade idle barbs about Sonny, they were there to celebrate. "I think it looks wonderful, Carly…"

"I haven't seen this much room in the penthouse since… well, a long time ago," Carly laughed. The place used to be a whole lot different, before she came into Sonny's life, and more importantly before Michael came into his life. When Michael became his son, Sonny found himself doing everything to accommodate the needs of a small boy. Carly knew then and there that she had made the best choice she could have made when it came to raising her child with a father figure. AJ would never do something like that for anyone, anyone but himself.

"I can't believe you just got this idea in your head…"

She snapped her head towards Jason, "You know just because I have the most horrible track record out of anyone who has ever lived on the planet Earth when it comes to my ideas doesn't mean that they're always going to be horrible…"

"I didn't say anything like that."

"No, but you thought it."

Jason shrugged his shoulders in a blasé way, "Can you blame me?"

Carly gave him a cold glare before it faded, the smirk appearing on her face as she giggled, "No, I guess I can't. You, of all people, have the right to criticize me and my ideas…"

"Thank you, I intend on using that right quite frequently…"

"You already do."

"You just said it was my right."

"I'm going to get you back tonight for always doubting me, Jason Morgan," Carly stated firmly. "I'm going to have a nice, long dance with you while you're all dressed up in your suit and tie…"

"Don't wear heels, I might step on your toes…"

"You're a great dancer, Jason," Courtney tried to reaffirm her husband of his dancing abilities. He couldn't break dance… or if he could it was something that he had kept hidden from everyone, including Courtney, not that she blamed him for keeping the fact that he was a master at break dancing hidden from the masses, but he could slow dance without stepping on someone's feet… too often.

"I'm not going to be held responsible for what might happen if either of you force me to dance with you… consider this my waiver of liability."

"It has been noted," Carly grabbed her best friend by the hand, standing up, "We should get that last minute shopping done before things get too hectic…"

"You just went shopping…" Jason muttered.

"One can never have too many clothes for special occasions, Jason," Carly walked by, dragging Courtney with her, "we're just being cautious."

"I'm just going to monitor her spending," Courtney explained her motive, "I swear."

"Whatever," Carly didn't believe Courtney. Carly's shopping habits had long since rubbed off on her best friend. Courtney wasn't the shopping hound that Carly was, since such things were impossible, but she was well on her way of the path. "Thanks again for watching Michael and Morgan while we do this, Jase. You're one of the only people I trust…"

"You know I'm always available to help you and the boys whenever you need it, Carly."

"I was just expecting Sonny to stick around, but he got some phone call and said that he needed to do something…"

"He didn't tell you what it was?"

"Does he ever?" Carly didn't try and hide the fact that she wasn't fond of her husband's secrecy. She didn't even know what was going on in his life, which was something that she had become adjusted to, but it didn't mean that she needed to like it. "We'll be back in a little while."

Jason heard the door close behind him, his back turned as he looked over at the fireplace, the tree still next to the fireplace. Sonny's tree was nice, but Jason had to admit to himself that the tree Dillon picked out was better. He'd never say it to Sonny's face, of course, because doing so would be hearsay and the last thing Jason needed to start was the war of who had the better Christmas Tree.

His mind was better suited with wondering what kind of phone call Sonny could have gotten. Sonny usually managed to tell Jason about every call, no matter how small, and if it was something that was so urgent that he needed to leave right away why hadn't Jason been informed? Was Sonny losing his trust in Jason's abilities, doubting his judgment? Why would Sonny do something like that? Jason was the levelheaded one of the two, he should have been involved… but he wasn't. Why?

The question would remain unanswered as the sound of someone coming down the stairs caught his attention. He knew who it was. Michael didn't have the most distinct sound when he was coming down the stairs, but Morgan was the only other person in the house, and Morgan couldn't walk.

Michael had stayed in his room for a majority of the day, having only come down for breakfast well before his mother had decided on her plan of action. For a moment, he stood there, stunned, his mind trying to comprehend what had happened to his home. Finally, not seeing any reason why, he just asked the first thing that came into his mind, "What happened to the living room?"

Jason smirked, Michael's innocence having the effect that it had always had on Jason. No matter what troubles were going on in Jason's life, Michael was able to somehow make them seem unimportant. Nobody else had that power, not even Carly or Courtney, it was something that was uniquely Michael's. Morgan probably wouldn't be able to do it, either, despite being named after Jason… Jason was never Morgan's father, even for a brief period of time. "Your mother decided to redecorate…"

Michael walked over to Jason, standing where the couch had once been. "I don't think daddy is going to like it."

"Sonny seemed to be fine with it… but maybe your mom was just telling me that so I wouldn't think about it any more."

"Why did mommy do this, Uncle Jason? Does she not like the way that the living room looked? I liked it…"

"Your mom is going to have a party tonight."

"Like a birthday party?" Michael's eyes gleamed with the thoughts that he could have presents, despite it being just after Christmas one could never have too many presents.

"No, buddy, this is an adults' party…"

The happiness was quick to fade. Michael knew all too well what it meant when someone said 'adults' around him. "That means I can't come, doesn't it?"

"You wouldn't like it."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm an adult and I don't like it," Jason smiled. "Trust me, buddy, this isn't going to be the type of thing that you're going to want to be a part of… not now, not even when you're old enough. You'll just find yourself forced to do it because people expect it of you."

"Why don't you just not do it, Uncle Jason?" Michael asked. "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do, you always told me that, ever since I was a little boy. Damian told it to me, too."

"Sometimes we're forced to do things that we don't want… for the people that we care about. Don't worry, Michael, this is only going to be for a few hours tonight and then we'll go back to just being normal people. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't something that I thought I couldn't get through."

"You must really love mommy to do this for her."

"I love your mother…"

"More than Aunt Courtney?"

Jason was quiet for a second, not sure how to assess the question. He finally found his answer, "I love your mother in a way that I could never love your Aunt Courtney, just like I love Courtney in a way I could never love Carly. There are different types of love… like the way that you love your brothers and the way that you love your parents. You don't love them the same way, do you?"

"No, I guess not…"

"See, it's like that with Courtney and Carly for me. I care about both of them, but I do it in different ways."

"Being an adult seems confusing…"

"Sometimes it is… most of the time."

Michael walked over to the couch, which had been moved to another section of the room. "I wish I could stay a kid forever…"

Jason felt the smile creep up on his face, but in his heart he wished the same thing. He didn't want Michael to be tarnished with everything that would eventually come to be for him. He wanted Michael to stay the way he was, but there was nothing that Jason could do to prevent it from going away.


	95. The Stationhouse

Port Charles Police Department-

Sonny tried to never go into the PCPD without a good reason. He didn't like being around the cells, they made him nervous, they made his claustrophobia return with a vengeance. Even at that very moment, Sonny Corinthos was fighting back the feeling that everything was closing in on him, but Sonny was good at hiding his weaknesses, while his insides may have been twisting and turning, on the outside Sonny looked like he had always looked: cool, calm, confident. The only times when Sonny lost the stigma that made him so feared and respected was when things were crumbling in around him. He didn't have to worry about that, at least not yet. Sonny hoped that it would never come to be, another time when he had to worry about the safety of someone that he cared about.

He heard the clamoring of the people in the cells. They were looking at him, telling him things that he didn't want to hear, telling him how they weren't anywhere near as bad as him, that he was the one who needed to be locked up and that they should have been free. Sonny just gave them the cold look that had often silenced so many others, but the prisoners continued to talk, they had nothing else to lose and figured that they could taunt Sonny while they were already in custody, they were safe there. Sonny got an inward smirk at the fact that they didn't know just how dangerous it was for them no matter where they were.

An officer, a female officer, placed her baton against the railing and told the people to quiet down. She gave Sonny the same look that all the police officers in Port Charles did. She didn't think that he deserved to be free either, but she knew that there was nothing they could do to prove that he needed to be behind bars. Sonny was a free man, they all just needed to bide their time and wait for the moment when Sonny finally slipped up. It hadn't happened to a point where they could put him away for good yet, but nobody was that lucky, not even Sonny Corinthos.

Ric had heard the commotion from his office. He didn't pay any attention to it, figuring that someone would quickly quell the more anxious members of their incarcerated club, but it wasn't until the mumblings continued that Ric finally got up, leaving his files on his desk and walked out into the open. "I'll add an extra few months to the time anyone who doesn't shut up…" it was then that Ric saw his big brother, who was looking directly at him. "Sonny?"

"Should have known you'd be here…"

"There are some who claim that you should be here, too…"

"Like you?"

Ric managed to stay as collected as he could. Sonny knew how to push his buttons too well, but Ric was trying to better himself as a person. Elizabeth wouldn't accept him if he continued to unleash plan after plan in hopes that he could finally destroy Sonny's life. "I don't think that any of your people have been arrested… certainly not Jason. I think I would know…"

"Because you love obsessing about my 'operations' right, little brother?" Sonny put an emphasis on the world 'operations,' his public face demanding that he deny the truth, even when he was around people who knew better. Ric knew the truth, but Ric couldn't do anything about it. "Really, I didn't think that the coffee business could be so interesting to you, didn't you pick up on any sort of hobbies over at that Ivy League school where you got your degree?"

"The only hobby I picked up was finding a way to put people away who abuse the law."

"And kidnapping a pregnant woman, holding her hostage, doesn't count as abusing the law because?"

"Why are you here, Sonny?" Ric balled his hand into a fist, the tension causing his entire body to shake. If they were actually brothers by bond instead of just by blood, if they had grown up together, odds were high that they would be best friends, or they would have killed each other. As it stood it was nearly impossible for the two of them not to kill each other every time they spent more than five minutes together. It was only the memory of their mother, Adella, that kept them from doing the final fatal deed. Ric could get away with keeping Sonny in prison, he would still be alive… Sonny wasn't so lucky. In that respect, it was Ric who had the leverage.

"I need to speak with someone…"

"Someone?"

"It isn't you, Ric," Sonny said snidely, "so I don't think that you should worry yourself about it in any way."

"Sonny… is everything all right?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because we're brothers, Sonny. We might not like each other, we might try and hurt each other far too often, but we still share a mother. She might be gone now…"

"Don't talk about her!" Sonny snapped. "You never earned the right to even acknowledge her being alive! She's not your mother, Ric… she's mine."

"You can't deny me the right to think of her as my mother, Sonny… she didn't raise me because she couldn't give you up… she thought she could keep you happy… she was wrong."

"I'd punch you, but this isn't the time or the place."

"Just leave, Sonny…"

"I'm not leaving until I talk to Mac."

Mac? Why did Sonny want to talk with Mac? Ric would have asked if he thought that he had any chance of actually getting an answer, but he knew that Sonny wouldn't even tell him anything, and more than that, Ric just wanted Sonny to get out of his face. Ric was hurt by Sonny's words, by the denial that Sonny placed on their mother. It pained Ric to think that he had never met his mother, not even once… he might have seen her a few times, but he was too young and the memories were long gone. He didn't even have pictures of her. "He's in his office," Ric said with gritted teeth.

"Do me a favor, Ric, don't follow me…"

"Wouldn't dream of it, big brother," Ric's title for Sonny was almost always filled with spite, it was no different at that moment. He watched Sonny walk away, lowering his head. He had fathomed for a brief second actually trying to tell Sonny about the wedding, even inviting him to be a part of it, but Sonny started to attack him with almost no provocation, and Ric didn't need anything tarnishing the day that he wanted to be one of the happiest in his life. It was their last encounter of the year, and it stung just as much as the others.

Mac was blissfully unaware of the fact that there were problems going on in his department. His door was closed as he spoke to someone on the phone. It wasn't Maxie. She was due for a checkup anytime, but she had yet to call. He wasn't worried. He had finally almost managed to bring himself to the point where he didn't think anything was going to happen between Damian and Maxie.

Those brief seconds of happiness were forever shattered when he saw Sonny Corinthos looking at him through the partially opened door. Mac glared at Sonny, trying not to make any sudden movements, provoke the man, speaking into the phone, "I'll call you back, I have something that I need to take care of."

Sonny watched Mac hang the phone up, "You could have finished the call, I would have waited."

"I'm sure whatever you have for me is more important than a phone call with an old friend… she was just wishing me happy New Year."

"If I did that, would you try and put me away?"

"Depends on if you had me dangling from a meat hook or something…" Mac didn't have the time for games, he didn't want to play with Sonny, he just wanted Sonny gone, but Sonny wouldn't leave until he said what he needed to say, Mac was certain of that. "Why are you here?"

"Our kids are in New York City together…"

"I'm aware of that."

"I'm assuming that you have Maxie checking in with you every so often…"

"That's none of your concern."

"When it involves my son it becomes my concern, Mac…"

"Yes, Sonny, Maxie's supposed to check in with me, she should be doing so soon. I expect her to be on her way back to Port Charles in a few hours." Mac looked over at the clock. She said she would be home before the night was done, and he was going to keep her to her word.

"Yeah… about that," Sonny knew that things weren't going to be great between him and Mac, but he was at least willing to give it a try because he actually was quite fond of Maxie and thought she was good for his kid. "My pilot called, the one who took them to New York… he said there is no way that he can take off any time tonight…"

Those were the last words that Mac wanted to hear. He didn't even want to think aboutg it, but he refused to give into the thoughts that were swirling in his mind. He wanted Sonny to tell him what was really going on. "What are you talking about?"

"Damian and Maxie are stuck in New York city tonight, Mac," Sonny laid it out, plain and simple, "because they can't move out of the city without risking their lives, and my pilot isn't an idiot, he wouldn't put their lives in danger…"

"But you would."

"I didn't come here to fight…"

"Then why did you come here, Sonny?" Mac asked, angry that his daughter was going to be spending more time with her boyfriend. "Did you come to gloat? To tell me that you were a better father than me simply because you're able to accept the fact that your son is dating the daughter of the commissioner and I can't accept the fact that my daughter is dating the son of a…"

"Coffee importer."

"Don't give me that," Mac growled. "We both know what you do, Sonny. I've seen the bodies… I've been to the crime scenes. You might be able to fool people into thinking that you're a good person, but you can't fool me."

"You want to know why I came here, Mac?" Sonny stood in front of Mac, who had a few inches on him, but Sonny wasn't going to be intimidated by anyone, especially an officer of the law. "I came out of respect for you as a father, as Maxie's father. I felt that since it was my plane that took them you should hear it from me…"

"That doesn't help make me feel any better."

"I bet you're blaming him for this, aren't you?"

"You're damn right I'm blaming your kid for this… it was his idea! I knew it was a bad one, but I didn't want Maxie to hate me…"

"Damian doesn't have control over the weather. He's not Meekos Cassadine!"

"I never said he did…"

"But you thought it," Sonny knew what Mac was thinking, Mac wasn't all that great at keeping his emotions hidden. Sometimes it helped, but more often than not it made Mac very unfit for the job. "I don't know what you have against my son…"

"You don't?" Mac laughed. "How dense are you, Sonny? Look around your life… look at everything that you have around you. You have bodyguards, bulletproof windows, you live in a penthouse that is how many feet up in the air?"

"He doesn't have anything to do with that…"

"He lives with you!" Mac slammed his file on the desk, scattering the papers everywhere. It didn't matter, there were things that were more important than getting the papers. "You put him in danger and by default he puts the people that he is around in danger… that includes both of my daughters, I'll have you know, but Maxie is the one in more immediate danger, she's already been kidnapped because of him!"

"My son is a better person than I could ever hope to be," Sonny didn't want to stand around and let Mac insult the integrity of his son, because Mac wouldn't be able to survive the encounter and Sonny didn't want him dead… yet. "Maxie's lucky to have him… he's lucky to have her. You need to actually look at their relationship without your blinders on, Mac… you could be a lot happier about it. I know I am."

Mac heard the door slam, his anger blinding him to the point where he couldn't really see anything. He sat in his chair, a dejected sigh coming from his lips as he looked up. Sonny was wrong… he was just protecting his son, but could Mac really blame him for that? Maybe… maybe not.


	96. Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Docks-

"Well, now that we've seen everything that historic Port Charles has to offer…"

"Which took all of five minutes…"

Dillon smirked at his girlfriend. He was rubbing off on her, he knew it. She was getting that humorous side to her that she had often been afraid to let out when she was around anyone, and Dillon, in turn, was learning how to open up because of the love that festered in his heart for Georgie. There relationship was one that was good for both parties involved, and it could only get better with the passing time.

"What are you doing?" Georgie wondered, looking into his eyes. Sometimes she knew, there were other times, like that moment, where she didn't. She could see the love, though, and even if he didn't tell her she wouldn't mind. It wasn't anything bad. She loved the fact that she and Dillon could go so long without having a fight… the other couples in Port Charles seemed unable to do such things.

"Thinking…"

"About what?"

"The past," Dillon walked her over to the bench, brushing the still falling snow off of the wooden furniture before leading her down gently.

"What past?"

"Our past," he replied, holding her hand. "It's like you said… Port Charles doesn't have anything for us, Georgie… nothing. We can leave this place at any time and we don't have to look back… not really."

"Dillon…"

"Just listen," he shushed her with his finger over her lip. "When I first came here I hated it… I didn't want to be here, I just wanted to stay with my mother… the fact that I wanted to stay with my mother scares the hell out of me right now, but back then I didn't know any of the people who I know today… I didn't know you. I remember at first I was just looking around the town, looking for something that could help make the time pass… and I didn't find anything… and then I went into Kelly's… and I found you."

Georgie blushed, "I'll never regret the choice I made… especially since you were the only good looking person in the whole place at that time. All the other guys were old enough to be my great-grandfathers…"

"I found you, and even when I didn't think you wanted me, I still wanted you…"

"I wish I could take those times back." She hated the fact that she didn't see what was right in front of her face for so long. Dillon was there for her from the beginning, even when she still thought that she cared about her adopted cousin. She should have known better, she should have known that her heart belonged to someone else. "I think back on what I did to you… the things I said…"

"They made our relationship stronger," Dillon said softly, "and I know for a fact that I wouldn't take any of those times back, even the ones that killed a little part of me inside, because we wouldn't have the magic that we have right now if we didn't fight for everything that we became."

"You're right…"

"We can still leave Port Charles whenever we want… we're going to be off to school soon, real school, none of this petty high school crap that we've been stomaching for the past four years of our lives."

"But we won't be going to the same place…"

"It doesn't matter, does it?" Dillon asked. "Do you really think that our relationship can't handle the distance that different schools would put on it?"

"People will like you, Dillon, girls will want to get to know you…"

"And guys will want to know you," he replied. "I don't care about any of the girls that I could meet, Georgie. I don't care if they're considered the most gorgeous people on the planet by every other person at my college, because the only person I need is you."

"Why are we talking about this?"

"Because we can't deny that it's going to happen." Dillon let go and stood up, "The whole time we've been together I've been thinking about it to myself, you know? I would ask myself how I was going to handle being away from you. When we first started doing this… when we first fell in love, I couldn't think of being more than a few minutes away from you, let alone hours… but we've grown. We're stronger now, better than we were back then."

"I'll still miss you."

"I'll miss you, too, but we'll always care about each other."

"Do you really want to leave Port Charles?" Georgie asked, because a part of her didn't want to. She loved Port Charles, it was her home, the only place that she had ever really called home, the place she knew best. She would go away from Port Charles and she would be at a place that she didn't know anything about.

"Ever since I got here, I wanted to leave. And when I found you, I wanted to take you with me…"

"But what about now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're not the same person you were when I met you, Dillon," she stood up, walking over to his place on the dock, "you're not hurt by what your mom did anymore. You don't have all those problems with feeling abandoned by the person that you thought loved you the most." She would always hate Tracy, if for no other reason than the fact that she made her own son feel like he didn't matter to her. Tracy could say that she never wanted Dillon to believe that all she wanted, but the truth was that she did just throw him to the dogs that were the Quartermaines and run away before the feast began.

"That's because of you."

"No, it isn't, not entirely. It's because you grew up, Dillon. You became a better person because you matured, you started to see things that you never saw before. People love you here, Dillon… not just me."

"But you're the only one who matters…"

"You don't mean that. Think about the people in your life now… what about Jason and Courtney?"

"Courtney took me in because she felt sorry for me, Jason did it for her…"

"But you were just telling me how you like living with them."

"I do like it," he walked over to the edge, "but I can walk away from it. I'm grateful to both of them for taking me in… and even mores for giving me the support that the rest of my family never did."

"What about Damian? He's your best friend… he's going to stay here because this is where he thinks he belongs."

"I know that… and I'm sure we'll still be friends… but I don't need him the same way I need you."

"Why do you want to leave?"

"Because I'm tired of people looking at me and going 'that's Dillon Quartermaine.' I didn't ask to be a local celebrity, Georgie… I didn't ask for people to hate me just because my family has more money than most of them will ever see in their lives… sometimes I hate the fact that I'm a part of them."

"And you think it'll be different…"

"When I'm away from Port Charles? Away from ELQ? Of course I think it's going to be different, because it will be. It'll be better."

"You're saying that there's nothing your family has to offer you?"

"Not really…"

"And you can just walk away from them like there was nothing between you?"

"It would make me the happiest person on earth."

She didn't know why Dillon was going through his crisis of identity. She knew who he was, even if he didn't. She was going to say something when another sound caught her attention, the sweeping sound of a siren's song, beautiful and filled with a sad melody. "Someone's singing…"

"What?"

"Listen," she repeated. "Listen to the voice that's being carried. She's beautiful."

Dillon listened to the song, it was a very pretty voice that was being heard, but the beauty masked something else. "She sounds sad…"

"Lets see if we can find her…"

"Georgie, we don't even know who this person is."

"Does it matter?" Georgie asked. "Someone who sounds that sad might need someone to talk with… I know I would."

"All right," Dillon sighed as he walked with Georgie around the corner. The fog still managed to pierce through the docks, even with the snow. It wasn't that thick, but it was still distracting enough.

The two teenagers followed the sound of the singer until they found her body cutting through the cloaking fog. Dillon was the one who went forward, "Hey… are you…"

"Don't touch me!" The woman jerked back, losing her balance until Dillon scooped her up in his arms, preventing her from falling into the icy water. She pushed at him, "I said let go!"

"Brook?" Dillon noticed his niece's face as soon as he got close enough.

Brook stopped struggling when she noticed that it was Dillon. She pushed herself away, "What the hell were you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

"Saving you from falling into the water, for one thing."

"Well I wouldn't have needed your help if you wouldn't have been acting like some sort of crazed stalker!"

"Brook," Georgie wanted to stop the two of them from bickering with each other before it got violent, "we just heard you singing… that was you, right?"

Brook lowered her eyes, she didn't want people to think that she was a singer. She knew she had a beautiful voice, just like her father, but that was more a curse than a blessing, a curse that she always wanted to avoid.

"Why do you look like that?" Dillon asked, feeling sympathetic for the person who was most like him in the family. He already knew that. They were both rebels against the society that they had been born into. "What's wrong?"

"Look, Uncle Dillon, I don't need your help, okay?"

"Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!"

"Yes you are," Dillon also noticed that she was shivering. "Brook, please, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing…"

"Here," Dillon took off his jacket and placed it over her shoulders, "you're almost as cold as ice… what the hell were you thinking?"

"Maybe I wasn't…"

"I'm taking you back to the mansion, right now," Dillon walked her away from the edge, "Georgie… if you want to…"

"I'm going with you," she followed behind, noticing just how fast Dillon reacted to the fact that someone in his family needed him. Maybe he wasn't as against them as he wanted people to believe, she was almost certain that he wasn't.


	97. Stroke of Luck

Journeylove- People refuse to see passed what Sonny appears to be at face value. It is ultimately their greatest flaw, one that is obviously attached to anyone within his inner circle. As for Durant… his plans will be seen soon enough.

Story-

New York, New York-

He waited for her at the table, drinking his tea inside of the coffee house. It wasn't a full house, but the place was still packed. New York on New Years Eve was just as bad as he thought it was going to be. He didn't like being around all the people, but he didn't have a choice, not anymore. He couldn't leave the city until the weather cleared up, the pilot not wanting to risk Sonny Corinthos's oldest child, knowing that even if he managed to make it to Port Charles intact, Sonny would not be happy. Damian didn't hold it against Lou, the pilot, but he still wasn't all that content with the situation.

If there was one thing that was keeping him happy it was her. The way that she looked at him. She didn't mind being stuck in New York. Why would she? Maxie was born to be one of those people who was painfully happy, the kind of giddy that even the most cynical person in the world couldn't hate, no matter how hard they tried. Damian wasn't one of those people, but he knew people like that. They would love Maxie, because she was almost commanding of that love.

Even with the crowd of people in the admittedly cramped space, she stood out. There were plenty of other blonde haired girls and guys in the place, but none of them radiated her beauty. Maybe it was just because he loved her so much, but he wanted to believe that he would have noticed her even if it was the first time they met. He had noticed her the first time they met. It seemed like it was such a long time ago, but it wasn't, it wasn't even half a year. So much had changed in that time. He'd changed. She'd changed. Most of the change was good, but some of it was undoubtedly bad. He was willing to compromise his morals for his family, something that he didn't think about when he was in Los Angeles, something that was never really necessary to think about. The Zuniga's may have had their skeletons inside of the family closet, but they had long since stopped doing the illegal activities that marred Sonny and Jason.

Sometimes he wondered if it was worth it, if, deep down, it was really worth making the sacrifices that he made. If finding his father was truly worth leaving the only home that he had ever known, even if it was one he didn't particularly care for. There were obvious reasons why he felt it was worth it: Michael, Courtney, Morgan, Dillon, Sonny, Jason, Elizabeth, Ric, even Carly. But none of them meant more than Maxie. With her he found a part of himself that he didn't even know existed, a part that scared him to the depths of his being yet made him happy to be alive at the same time.

She waved at him once more from her place in the line. For some reason the coffee shop had two lines, one for tea and one for coffee, since coffee had long since become all the rage in the country it was a much longer line, Damian was done in a few minutes, Maxie had been standing there for almost ten, but she didn't let it bring her down. Nothing would bring her down, at least he thought nothing would. She could always find the silver lining in a situation… even though sometimes she didn't think she could.

He knew why Mac was so fierce about protecting his daughters, Georgie and Maxie both, but he also knew why Mac was so intent on making sure that Maxie was the one who got the brunt of his attention. Georgie had something that Maxie sometimes lacked. Georgie was much more levelheaded than her older sister. It wasn't an insult to Maxie, it was just the truth. Mac worried about Maxie more than Georgie, Damian worried about Maxie more than Georgie, hell, Dillon probably did, too. She'd gone from a very bad relationship into one that was healthy, but with a person who brought up nothing but red flags to the police commissioner. Damian hated the fact that Mac couldn't just accept him for who he was, see that just because he shared a name with someone didn't mean that he shared their path in life, but that was a fools dream. He couldn't ask Mac to just accept him as a decent person, even though on some levels he knew that Mac believed the relationship that he had with Maxie was much healthier than the one that she had with Kyle, but he would have to show Maxie's father that he would never do anything to hurt her, not intentionally.

Maxie was finally free of the line that had plagued her, complete with her Mocha Latte, which she handled gingerly. Much like Damian had surmised, she loved being in the city, especially on New Years Eve. She had even seen a few people that she knew from school. Some of them, like the guy that Damian had seen, were at school in New York City at one of the many colleges. She hid it well, but she envied them. They hadn't made the mistakes that she made, they hadn't made it almost impossible to get into a good college right out of high school.

There were plenty of good things that came from her decision to not go away to a good school right away, the biggest reason sitting a few feet away from her. "You look like you could use someone to talk with."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you were staring at me most of the time I was in line."

"I was captivated by your radiant beauty, Maxie," he grinned, since it was, in fact, the truth.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine…"

"What happened wasn't your fault," she noted, placing a hand over his sympathetically. "I mean, I know my dad is going to find some way to put the blame on you, but you can't let it bother you…"

"I don't let it bother me. Mac hates me."

"He doesn't hate you…"

"Tell me that with a straight face and maybe, just maybe, I'll believe you."

"Damian, I swear to you, my father doesn't hate you." She knew it in her heart. Mac didn't hate the boy… he just didn't want Damian with his daughter. It wasn't Mac's call to make, but he found a way to make it anyway.

"We'll worry about your father later," he wanted to believe her, and maybe a small part of him did, but a bigger part couldn't help but know that Mac Scorpio would only be happy when Damian was out of Maxie's life, something that neither of the two young people in love were ready to have happen anytime soon.

"What are we going to do now? You want to speak with Durant again?"

"No," he didn't want to speak with Durant ever again. One time was enough. The fact that the man was Michael and Morgan's grandfather didn't fill Damian with much in the way of happiness. Genetics could be a huge burden. Poor Michael, forced to be AJ Quartermaine's biological son and John Durant's biological grandfather. Hopefully Michael would never need to find out about the man that was his grandfather. Durant wanted to destroy the lives of the people that Michael loved, and that would in turn destroy the boy, no matter what his age was.

"Good," Maxie agreed with everything that Damian was likely thinking. She didn't usually hate a person after only meeting them once, but it was obvious that she hated John Durant. The man thought that he was some superior god, but he wasn't. He wasn't anything worth mentioning. Someone needed to tell him that. If she had her way she would be the one to do it.

"We need to get a hotel…"

Maxie finished drinking her coffee, only because she would have spit it out otherwise. "You want to find a hotel… in New York City… on New Years Eve?"

"Do you want to sleep in an alley?"

"We could sleep on the plane…"

"Yeah, we could… and we might have to, but if I can avoid it… if I can get you an actual bed for the night, that's what I want."

"Is it really important to you?"

"Sleeping in a room with a heater instead of sleeping in a plane? Yeah, that's important to me."

"You do realize that you're trying to find something that probably won't be available?"

"There are thousands of places to get a room for the night in New York City, Maxie…"

"Yes, and there are millions of people from all over the world who come to New York City on New Years Eve, Damian. I'm not exactly the best person when it comes to math, but even I can see where that's going to end up."

"Only one way to find out, right?"

"Lets go…"

Some Time Later-

Maxie was right. There was almost no way in hell that they were going to get a room in New York City. They had tried every place that they could think of, finally resorting to calling because walking from one place to the other was becoming tiring. It wasn't until they found a very large hotel that they walked inside, hoping beyond hope that it would provide them with what they needed.

"Can I help you?" The clerk wasn't very enthused to see two college students that had decided to try and enter the hallowed halls of his hotel. Really, college students couldn't afford the rooms.

"We're looking for a room…"

"Was the motel six full?"

"All of the ones in the city," Damian muttered. He could tell that they were already being typecast as poor children, and he wasn't very happy with the stigma. "Look… do you have two rooms for the night? Just for tonight… hopefully." If they needed to they would add another night until the weather cleared up.

"It's New Years Eve…"

"I'm aware of that. Please, just check. If you don't have anything we'll leave. Pretty simple, don't you think?"

The man rolled his eyes and did as he was instructed. He didn't think that there was anything available, especially that the college kids could afford, but he was still forced to do his duty because they could possibly be customers. "We don't have two rooms available… we have one."

"Damian," Maxie grabbed his hand. "They have one room… I don't mind."

His eyes were closed as he thought about it. He loved Maxie. Always would. But was he ready to share a room with her? Looking outside at the snow, which was coming down even more than it was when they entered the hotel, he knew his answer. He wanted her to be comfortable, and that was more important to him than making himself comfortable. "We'll take it…"

"Credit?"

"Cash."

The clerk was stunned by the fact that the boy wanted to pay cash, especially since the room wasn't really cheap. When he said the amount, Damian didn't flinch, instead just throwing down some bills, his face emotionless. It was the first time that he had ever really needed to flaunt money around, he didn't like it, but it was necessary.

Damian and Maxie took the elevator to the floor where the room was. Maxie had never seen such a lavish place in her life. She thought the Port Charles hotel was something special, but the place she was in at that moment had it beat without even trying.

When Damian opened the door to the room, Maxie covered her mouth with her hand. Everything that she dreamed of when she was a little girl was there. A canopy bed. A fireplace, chandelier… it was perfect.

"Maxie…"

"I love it," she whispered as she kissed him on the cheek. Her mind was running with the possibilities that were there. She could have the moment that she would never forget with the man that she loved in a magical city.

Damian was thinking about the possibilities as well. That which he wouldn't do, and that which he would. It was a very slim margin.


	98. The Swag

ItalianChick- Thank you for the review, I'm glad that you are enjoying both the story overall, and my creation. Since you people demand Journey sooooo much, I really should find a way to keep you content, shouldn't I? Well, guess what, Journey's in this chapter. Not that much, but they are there…

Story-

Corinthos Household-

Sonny returned home from his short and ultimately useless meeting with Commissioner Scorpio. Add in the extra tussle with his little brother and Sonny realized that he wasn't ending the year on a high note. Closing the door, Sonny put his fingers on his temples and started to massage them, hoping that he would get rid of the headache that was pulsating through his mind. He hated it when he had headaches, they weren't as bad as breakdowns, but they were pesky as all hell.

It was only when Sonny opened his eyes and looked around that he remembered Carly had done some temporary redecorating. Sonny fumed a little, not wanting to make the short extra steps that it would take to sit in his favorite chair. If it wasn't so important to his wife he would have never even agreed to the whole idea.

He heard someone walking down the stairs, staring blankly when he saw it was Jason. Other people he may have been a little worried about being in his home while nobody else was around, but Jason was a member of the family, he could be around whenever he wanted.

"Can you believe this?" Sonny asked, pointing to the floor.

"They want us to dance… that's what I can't believe."

Sonny poured himself some water, not wanting to drink anything with any sort of alcohol, knowing that it wouldn't help the headache that he was having. Water was best. "We can handle it, Jason. We've managed to come through worse."

"I hate being in a suit…"

"I don't."

"You're always wearing one," Jason remarked, and it was the truth. Seeing Sonny without a suit was a rare and altogether fascinating thing. Jason, on the other hand, wore suits only when the situation called for them. The last time he wore one was when he had to say goodbye to Lila.

"I told you that I could get you my tailor, Jason. I'm sure Courtney wouldn't mind…"

"I'll pass," Jason didn't want to get a new wardrobe, the leather jacket was his friend. "Carly and Courtney went to do some last minute…"

"Shopping?"

"Yeah."

Sonny shook his head. "I need to put that wife of mine on an allowance or something. Half the money that we make ends up going towards her wardrobe needs. Sometimes I wonder if money is ultimately the root of all evil."

"Some claim that it is."

"I've seen true evil, Jason," Sonny sat down in the chair. "It doesn't come from money, it comes from people. My stepfather wasn't a rich man… and he was the worst person that I had ever seen. Sometimes when I try and sleep I see his face and I can't do anything about it… I see myself, a little boy, and I can't protect myself." The glass began to shake as the tension of the memories got to Sonny's body. He didn't share much with the people around him, but he tended to share the secrets of his past with Jason, only because it could have been important for something and Jason was the person who he trusted the most.

"I know, but other people use money and they become evil… look at the Quartermaine's…"

"I guess we'll just never know how it comes about, right?" Sonny finished his water, putting the glass on the nearby counter.

"Michael's asleep… he was in here for awhile, I just picked him up and put him in bed when I heard you come in."

"He's going to be too big for either of us to carry into bed soon…"

"I'm surprised he hasn't already started telling us that we shouldn't do it," Jason took a seat across from Sonny. "I remember when I was raising him I would read books because I didn't have any clue what I was doing… he's getting closer to the age where he's going to want to do things on his own… but he hasn't really started doing it yet."

"He's a good kid, he knows that he can depend on us for anything that he needs."

"You raised him right, Sonny."

"You helped me, you and Courtney… Carly and I wouldn't be where we are right now if it wasn't for the two of you. That's why she wants to do this for you, for both of you, to give you something to do that will relax you instead of helping us through our latest crisis."

"Carly figures that making me dress up in a suit, which she knows I'm going to hate, is going to relax me?"

"I didn't say that she really thought the whole thing through, did I?"

"No… I guess you didn't." Jason heard the phone ring, which caught his interest. He usually didn't listen in on Sonny's conversations, but he was still worried about the fact that something had happened and Sonny didn't tell him, that was enough to cause him to ditch his usual distance.

"Hello?"

Damian looked out of the window over the city. It was a great view. Maxie was busy trying to find all the interesting things in the room. He figured he should have called his father, just to tell him what was going on. "Dad, it's me…"

"Lou called me up… told me about the weather."

"Did he?" Damian was glad that he didn't have to hear Sonny trying to say that Damian was just making up excuses so he could spend the night with his girlfriend. He didn't really need that.

"Where are you?"

"A hotel…"

"You found a hotel room in New York City today?"

"It wasn't cheap… and they only had one room left."

"Sure they did."

Damian groaned, "Dad… please, not right now, okay?" It was bad enough hat he was fighting his own moral battles, he didn't need his father adding to the problems. "I just wanted to tell you that we weren't going to be coming home tonight. My phone should still be working, though, so if something happens… call me."

"You sure you're going to be okay?"

"Don't complain when you see the credit card bill… I wasn't planning on spending the night."

"Carly's part of the bill will overshadow anything that you could come up with, son, don't worry about it. Make sure that you and Maxie are taken care of… and tell her not to worry about her father, I told Mac about the weather."

"You did?" He couldn't hide the fact that he was stunned. Sonny, talking to a police officer, of his own free will? That was scary in and of itself. "How did it go?"

"Take a guess…"

"That bad?"

"Worse."

"I'm sure we'll hear all about it," Damian could already think of the stories that were going on in both his father's head and Mac's head. Two different sides of the same story, both parties attempting to demonize the other. It would have been so much easier for everyone involved if Mac and Sonny could just get along, but Damian knew that it wasn't going to happen. "I'll call again tonight… I know Michael wanted to spend New Years Eve with me… but I can't make it."

"He'll understand. He's sleeping right now. Jason was staying with him while Carly and Courtney went shopping… again."

"I'll check in a little later," Damian tried not to laugh at the fact that Carly was spending even more money. "Bye, dad."

Sonny hung up the phone without saying goodbye, as was his custom. At least his boy was all right and he didn't need to find a place to sleep, although the plane would have been more than adequate.

Jason turned away, trying not to look suspicious, but it would have looked even worse if he didn't ask any questions. "Damian?"

"Yeah," Sonny nodded. "The reason I wasn't here when you came was because I wanted to tell Mac about the problem myself. I know that Mac didn't want the kids to be together today, but I thought I could appeal to his senses of being a father."

"And it didn't work out as well as you wanted?"

"I respect Mac's choices to protect Maxie from people who might hurt him, I even sympathize with the fact that he thinks Damian might hurt her, not directly, but just by association… he's right, because Maxie is a target now… but he's trying to make it seem like Damian is bad for her, and we all know that it isn't true."

"Mac's always had his own opinions about everything and everyone, Sonny. You're never going to do anything that will change that, the only one who can is Mac, and that isn't something that happens very often."

"You seemed like you were trying to find something out about the call, Jason. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Not one to lie, especially to Sonny, Jason told him the truth. "Nobody else knew what kind of call you had gotten. Carly just said that you got a phone call and you said you would be back when you were done taking care of something. I wasn't sure if it was something that had to do with the business…"

"I would tell you if it was something that was related to the business…"

"I know, but for a second I thought that maybe you were trying to keep something from me."

"Why would I do something like that?"

"I don't know…"

Sonny studied Jason. In some ways, it was a strange relationship that the two had. Student and Teacher, with Sonny as the teacher. He had taken Jason under his wing after the accident, had given him a purpose. Jason had been taught almost everything that he knew how to do simply because of Sonny. "This isn't like you."

"It was just a thought, I managed to convince myself that I was just being skeptical."

"You shouldn't ever think that I don't trust you, Jason, because I do. If I felt that I couldn't take you in with me to do something I would do it. You tell me all the time that you think I should just stay put, and I listen…"

"It was just odd for a second."

"I'll have to speak to Carly about what she tells you. I didn't want you to think that I was excluding you from our work. That was just something involving my son and his girlfriend, so I thought that it would be best if I talked to Mac father to father. You being there would have only complicated things."

"I understand that now."

Carly and Courtney walked in, oblivious to the tension that had been building. It was almost completely dissipated by the time they walked into the house. They were laughing as they carried a few bags into the house, much less than they normally did. "Hey… you're back."

"More shopping?" Sonny asked, giving Carly his scornful eye.

"A woman has to have options…"

"You have plenty of options already. You can effectively change your outfit at least three times an hour and you would still have extra clothes to wear."

"Well, maybe I'm going for four times an hour…"

"Is everything all right?" Courtney asked, not wanting to be involved with the squabbling that had seemed to run so rampant in their lives. "You took off like you were a man possessed."

Sonny decided that there was no reason why he needed to keep the facts a secret from his family, "Damian and Maxie are stranded in New York, the weather's too much for Lou to fly the plane back to Port Charles until it clears. No telling when that is, but they're at least stuck there for tonight. They've got a hotel room, though, so they should be fine."

Carly was glad to hear that they were all right, but her focus was on her own son, "Michael wanted to spend some time with Damian before midnight… he's going to be so disappointed."

"It can't be helped," Sonny reminded her. "We'll just have to make sure that he realizes that and doesn't hold it against Damian or Maxie." That was Sonny's greatest fear, sometimes Michael didn't really understand everything that went on around him. The penalty of being young.

"If you need me, I'll be in the room picking out something to wear… but I'll stop if you need help."

"Putting your child in front of your wardrobe… touching."

Carly gave Sonny a dirty, but harmless look as she walked up the stairs into her room and closed the door. She hoped everything would be okay, they all did.


	99. Snowed In

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Ned Ashton was a man of many talents. He could sing well enough to have, at one time, had a very successful music career. He was a chief executive officer of a conglomerate corporation which, at times, helped his family stay in the money that they had long since earned. He liked to think that, despite the fact that his mother was often considered to be Satan taken female form, a good son and a good brother. But there was one thing that Ned knew he wasn't very good at. Ned knew that he wasn't a very good father. He sat there in the living room, looking around at the pictures of various members of the family, including Lila. He was crushed when she died. He admired her spirit, everyone did. Another thing that Ned wasn't good at, he was quick to realize, was being a good husband. Lois had left him, and there was that whole mess with Alexis that ended before it even really started, although she told him that none of it was his fault that didn't stop him from thinking that there was something he did that pushed her away.

He always did that, didn't he? He always pushed people away. He pushed his family away when he got married to Lois, thinking that it would help him start living life as an individual, which was a stupid idea since they always found a way to meddle in his life anyway. He pushed Lois away… and, ultimately, pushed his daughter away. Brook meant so much to him, but did he ever show it? No. He was always too busy to do anything involving his daughter, even pick up a phone and ask her how she was doing. Despite being thought of as a paragon of perfection amongst the Quartermaine clan, Ned realized just how flawed he truly was.

"Darling, you look like you could use someone to talk with."

Ned gave a cold glare at his mother, "And you think that I should turn to you for support?"

"I am your mother," Tracy smiled at him, "I know you best."

"What's my favorite color?"

"Orange?"

Ned shook his head, "No, mother, my favorite color is not orange. I guess you don't really know me as well as you think."

"Colors don't matter anyway, do they?"

"It's red," Lois came in from the hallway. "Ned's favorite color is red."

There was a small smile that appeared on Ned Ashton's face, partly because of the fact that Lois remembered, but quite possibly it had more to do with the fact that his mother looked like she would rather be enduring Chinese water torture. Ned probably would have watched that. "You remembered."

"Give her some credit, dear," Tracy commented snidely. "Lois has a brain… somewhere. I'm sure it can remember little random factoids of no importance."

"I always thought that your present to us when we were married was staying away as often as you did," Lois kept her cool demeanor even when she didn't want to, even when she thought that the best thing she could do would be to strangle Tracy and rid the world of her for good. One day she would take a hand count. "I guess I was right."

"I thought I sent you some china…"

"You did, mother, addressed to, I believe 'my darling son and the tart.' We opened that gift in private… just in case something blew up and ruined Lois's dress."

"I would never do anything to hurt that dress," Tracy walked over to the bar, "that dress belonged to my mother, it has priceless sentimental value."

"Did you wear it when you got married?" Lois wondered.

Ned chuckled, "Which time?"

"If you two are done attempting to lower my self-esteem I'd like to continue the conversation that I was having with my son… alone, thank you."

"Look, you got me back to the mansion, are you happy?"

The three adults were all alarmed to hear Brook Lynn's very distinguished voice. She was angry, and when she sounded angry she seemed to channel her grandmother. Ned and Lois didn't like that, and they were almost sure that Tracy didn't, either. But they didn't worry about that, instead they all walked towards the door, trying to see who was with her.

"I'll be happier when I know you're safe…"

"Listen, just because you're my uncle doesn't mean that you have a right to try and boss me around! You were never there for me growing up, none of you people were…"

Dillon hid the pain that came from her scathing remark, but he knew it was true. He wasn't there for Brook when she was growing up. Even though he was barely older than her he still could have protected her, been there for her when she needed someone. "I didn't have a choice…"

"If you want to blame someone for taking Dillon away from you, you should really blame Tracy," Georgie knew that it was her choice that the two go away to Europe. Dillon was too young to even argue with his mother, but he was with her now and Georgie wouldn't let Tracy do something like that again.

"I refuse to be your scapegoat, Georgie," Tracy was the first to come into sight. "And why are you here anyway? Don't the guards have you on some list where they're to use a tazer on you if you come too close?"

"Mom!" Dillon was hoping to avoid spending any time with his mother before he left, but his hopes were dashed and two seconds into their forced encounter she was already taking apart the woman that he loved. "Would you please be a little more respectful to Georgie?"

"This is me being respectful, dear," Tracy countered. "Believe me, I'm holding back."

"What's going on here?" Lois walked over to Brook, "Brookie, where were you? We tried to call you on your phone to make sure that you were all right, but you never answered."

"I didn't want to be bothered," Brook pushed herself away from her mother. "I don't want to be bothered right now, either."

"Brook Lynn Ashton!" Ned tried to make his voice sound as intimidating as he possibly could. "You do not talk to your mother like that…"

"Oh, now you're going to try and play father?" Brook felt the tears swelling in her eyes again. "You know, I thought that I could get over the fact that you were never there for me, dad, but I don't think I can. I thought I could give you another chance because of everything that had happened… but maybe I can't do that, either."

"Brookie…"

"Don't, ma!" She snapped. "Just leave me alone, all of you!"

Tracy waited a moment, watching the young girl run up the stairs, waiting for the inevitable slamming of the door. She looked at Lois, "Your daughter certainly has your flair for the dramatics."

"Mom!"

"Mother!"

Tracy found herself attacked by both of her sons at the same time. She merely shrugged her shoulders, "You know that you were thinking the exact same thing, both of you."

Dillon rolled his eyes, "You know what… we're done here."

"No, you're not," Ned grabbed his little brother by the arm. "You brought her home, Dillon, and she's not telling anybody what happened…"

"You think I know what happened?" Dillon asked.

"Anything you can tell us would be helpful," Lois didn't know what Dillon knew, but she was right, anything would be good.

"And since you want to be a movie director, I'm sure you could embellish, just a little."

"I'm sure that Dillon will embellish when he makes a movie by having a mother who isn't a horrid witch like you," Georgie had never liked Tracy, and the resentment was not hers alone. They might well be in-laws eventually… and that wouldn't be fun.

"When I ask for your opinion in something, you low bred peon, I'll let you know."

Dillon ignored his mother's insults at his girlfriend, only finding the strength to not yell at her when he clutched his hand into a fist and gritted his teeth. Taking a moment to recollect his sanity, he focused on the important matter, his niece and her wellbeing. "Georgie and I were on the docks, we didn't know that Brook was there. We heard her singing and we went to see who it was because we could tell that there was something about the way that she was singing that showed just how sad she was."

"Brook's like that," Lois nodded. "Whenever she's sad she'll sing. I wish she would do it when she was happy, too… such a beautiful voice."

Georgie continued the explanation, "When we realized that it was her we asked what was wrong, but she didn't want to talk with us, either, but Dillon could see that there was something that was bugging her so he told her that he was going to bring her back to the mansion… but she didn't really talk to us while we were on our way back."

"Thank you for looking out for her, Dillon," Ned was grateful that his little brother still cared enough to put his family in his life as a priority.

"We'd better go…" Dillon looked at his mother, she was gearing up to think of reasons why he should stay, he knew it. "It was hard enough getting here because of all the snow."

"I can't let you put yourself at risk, Dillon, I love you too much for that. You're staying here… the wench can take a chance, though."

"Mom…"

"I was joking, darling, honest. I wouldn't want to have Commissioner Scorpio on my case because of his darling daughter's untimely demise."

"Let's go, Georgie," Dillon ignored his mother as best he could, grabbing Georgie's hand and walking away.

She turned and looked at Ned and Lois. It was easy to see that they were concerned. "I hope that Brook Lynn feels better."

"Thank you, Georgie," Lois smiled. The girl was so kind, very much like her mother. "Tell Mac that I said Happy New Year, please."

"I will."

Alice walked in from one of the other rooms, "Where do you kids think you're going?"

"Anywhere but here," Dillon's blunt response ripped at his mother's heart. If he was aware of it and if he actually enjoyed the fact that it did was unknown.

"Roads are closed," Alice stood in front of the door.

"We'll walk."

"Dillon, don't be stupid," Tracy walked over. "If you're not going to stay here for your own protection then think about your girlfriend. She's so petite that she would probably freeze to death before you got to the gate."

Dillon's eyes burned with rage at the prospect of spending time with his family again, and allowing poor Georgie to suffer just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but what choice did he have? As much as he hated to admit it, Tracy was right. He wouldn't make it back without at least getting sick. "The second that we can leave, we're gone."

"Then I'll have to make sure that every moment counts, won't I?" Tracy smiled, happy that she could at least have her son around for a little while, even if it came with the not so happy stipulation of having Georgie around as well. "Why don't we play a game? Jenga?"

"The only game you're good at is twisting people into doing your bidding, and I don't want to play that game."

"You don't get a choice as to if you want to play that game or not, my son… if I wanted you to play, you would play. Come, you look like you need something in your stomach. Does that mobster not feed you enough? Does he even feed you?" Tracy grabbed Dillon's hand and pulled at him. She had gotten herself another chance at swaying her child to return to the fold, she was not going to waste it.


	100. Montage

Note: 100 chapters as of today! Cue the streamers and the cheers and everything in-between. It is fitting that the 100th chapter of this story deals with the celebration. Gee, how did that happen?

Story-

Corinthos Household-

Some things were in and of themselves a sight to behold. Four adults, quite possibly four of the most powerful adults in Port Charles, around the penthouse that people feared, dancing and laughing was one of them. Although they had been through a lot together, the Corinthos and Morgan families really did not take much time to be normal people. It was a rarity for them, and while they did not consciously realize it, it was something that they all, on some level, wanted. They knew that it would be impossible to obtain, so it was best kept to themselves, not speaking of it to anyone else.

Even Jason was having a good time, something that he had long since given up on trying to hide. They would tell stories about things that seemed so funny to all of them now that they were a little older and wiser, stories about Michael and when he was a baby the way that Jason and Carly would wonder just what was going to happen. It was good to have family, and Jason knew that he had the best family that he could have ever hoped for.

"Come on, Jase," Carly stood up in her crimson form fitting dress, "you promised me a dance!"

The smile that was on his face was quick to fade. He had struggled with the dancing throughout the night and figured that it was over. He should have known better than to have hopeful thoughts, especially when Carly was involved. "Carly…"

"Jason," Courtney nudged her husband, a playful grin that she hoped would lighten the mood plastered on her own face, "you did promise Carly a dance. One dance."

"One," Jason said blankly. "That's all I promised."

"And that's all I'll take," she held her hand out to him. "I just want one last dance with the best friend I've ever had in my life before the year ends. Is that so much to ask."

Reluctantly, Jason got up, "If you end up having your toes stepped on, don't say I didn't warn you."

"I can handle a few bruised toes… just don't break anything."

"No promises this time, I know how you love to twist them around."

Sonny and Courtney glanced at one another, having a good natured chuckle at Jason's expense. The funny part was that, while he tried to play it off like he had no idea what he was doing, Jason was actually quite the dancer. Perhaps the inherent knowledge of the Quartermaine parties was still dormant in his mind, as long as it was only something harmless like that and not something that would destroy their lives, nobody would complain.

Sonny stood up, "No reason why I can't share a dance with my baby sister, right?"

Courtney grabbed his hand, "How could I resist an offer like that?" Her lilac dress shimmered in the dim light as she walked over with him, a comfortable distance away from her husband and her best friend.

"The last time I saw you look this beautiful was on your wedding day," Sonny smiled. His sister was gorgeous, there was no denying that. Sonny, of course, had nothing but sibling love for Courtney, but she was quite thankful that Sonny had no clue about her when she was a teenager. He would have played the overprotective brother, and a pretty girl like Courtney would have had plenty of scorned dates.

"You don't look that bad yourself. The tie suits you…"

"Thanks."

"I wish dad could be here…" it was a simple wish, but she looked at Sonny and knew that she probably shouldn't have said anything.

"Before you go thinking that I had something to do with Mike's non-invitation, you should know that everything was planned by Carly, including the guest list."

"If she would have invited him…"

"I would have welcomed him with open arms. Mike and I may have our issues… but that doesn't mean that we have to avoid each other."

New York, New York-

It was a late night, and he knew that sleep wouldn't be an option. Even though he was relatively far from Times Square the sounds carried enough to keep him up. He usually tried to get away from New York on New Years Eve, but he was glad that he had managed to stay this year.

John Durant picked up his phone and dialed a number. Normally he wouldn't call so late, but even older people stayed up till midnight on New Years Eve. Besides, it was important. "Hey, it's me. Cancel all my plans for the time being. I've got something that I need to take care of in Port Charles. Yes, I know who stays there… that's the reason why I'm going. Thanks. I'll give you updates, of course." John hung up the phone.

He looked out the window at the city that he had vowed to protect. He had done a good job, at least in his mind. Crime had gone down, and in such a big city like New York even the smallest amount of crime going down was helpful to the innocent people who did abide by the law.

The lights of the city reflected into his window, illuminating his face. "Sonny, you might have tried to be subtle, but I know you're out to get me… I don't intend on going easily."

Kelly's-

"Can I just say one thing?"

"What would that be?"

"God hates us."

Elizabeth laughed, "God doesn't hate anyone, Ric, not even you."

"Then why, Elizabeth, does he always make sure that whenever we have plans that involve the two of us having a good time it ends up with something like this happening? I mean, really, the last place I wanted to spend New Years Eve with my fiancé was at Kelly's, the place where you always end up spending the most time, but here we are, stuck inside of Kelly's, no less, because we couldn't make it out into the car without freezing to death. We were supposed to have a nice late night picnic by the stars… and we don't get that."

"Do you think it matters?"

"It matters to me. I wanted you to be happy."

Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek. Mike was somewhere else. He hadn't left, nobody could leave, they were just fortunate that the restaurant was empty by the time the snow got so bad that people couldn't leave. There were those that were upstairs in the apartments, but they had yet to come down. "When did you get the idea that I wasn't happy with what I have right now?"

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"Am I?" She pulled away. "Ric, I wouldn't say something just because I thought you needed it to make your bruised ego heal itself, you know me better than that. I told you that it didn't matter where we spent time together, as long as it was with you I wouldn't need anything else."

"Sorry," he apologized, looking at the clock. The time was nearing ever closer. It wasn't Elizabeth's fault that he and Sonny had an altercation. It wasn't even his fault. He tried to be nice to his brother, but Sonny made sure that being nice was something that could never happen. Why couldn't Sonny just forgive him?

"No more miserable thoughts for the rest of the year, do you hear me?"

"No more miserable thoughts for the rest of the year." He knew he could handle it, there wasn't much time left.

Quartermaine Mansion-

"I hate this!"

"Dillon," Georgie gave her boyfriend a sympathetic pat on the hand. She wasn't enjoying the idea very much either, but what could she do? The car they took was probably buried in snow and it wouldn't go away for a long time. She was stuck in the mansion, which used to be something that would appeal to her as a child, but that was before she knew Tracy and Dillon. If Tracy were gone she would be having the time of her life, but that wasn't the case.

"No, don't even try and make me think that the situation is better than it seems, because you can't! I'm stuck here, in the mansion, the place that I tried to leave with everything that I have in my being, with my mother…"

"And me."

"Sorry that you got stuck doing this, I told you to go back to your house, you could have saved yourself."

"And left you to deal with your family alone?" Georgie shook her head. "Besides, I told you that it didn't matter where we spent New Years Eve, just as long as we were together, and it looks like we're together."

"I would have rather been at Kelly's."

Georgie looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Tracy's leering glare at her. It made the teenager's blood run cold. "You and me both."

New York, New York-

"Could those pajamas have cost any more?"

"Yeah, probably."

Damian shook his head, "You're good at making the situation worse, you know that?"

"I thought that was why you loved me."

"I have plenty of reasons for loving you, Maxie."

The city began to cheer as they both looked at the clock. 11:59, one minute to go until the year was over.

"You nervous?" Maxie asked.

"Why would I be nervous? I've brought in plenty of years in my life, this shouldn't be any different."

"I'm nervous."

"Why?"

"Because this is the first time I've ever started a year with someone that I really love and I don't want to ruin it."

Damian smiled, "You won't."

They waited a few more seconds for the countdown to begin. They couldn't see the ball dropping, but they didn't need eyes to hear the people as they went down from second to second. When the cheers erupted the two young lovers embraced one another.

Elizabeth and Ric kissed from opposite ends of one of the tables at Kelly's, determined to make their second chance at a life together work much better than the first.

Georgie and Dillon hugged as they shared a passionate kiss, the old grandfather clock of the Quartermaine Mansion still ringing near them. It wasn't the ideal way that they would spend their New Years Eve together, but as long as they were with one another it didn't really matter.

The dancing had ended, partners had been switched as Husbands and Wives kissed their respective partners in the Corinthos household. As always, none of them had any clue about what they were going to do in the following year, if they would make it to the end. They only knew that their love would keep on going, even long after they were gone.

John Durant listened to the cheers with a sadistic smile on his face. "Sonny, you and Jason just brought in your last year as free men, I promise you that."


	101. Bedtalk

Jess and WhiteCamilla- Thank you for the congratulatory praise!

Story-

New York City, New York-

It was late at night by the time that they both decided to turn in. They'd never been up that late with one another before, but it seemed like it was as good a place to start as any. For Damian it was great, he didn't think that he would actually get to spend New Years with Maxie until around noon, but there he was, at two in the morning, with the only person who had ever loved him in the way that people love one another. He had a lot of fun with her, looking out at the stars, at least the ones that could be seen over the pollutant clouded New York sky. In truth, the only reason that they picked two in the morning to get some rest was because that was the time that the crowd finally managed to settle down enough to even give the possibility of sleep.

He looked at himself in the mirror as soon as the light of the bathroom was turned on. He was tired, and he looked like he was. Maybe it was because he knew himself so well, had Maxie noticed that he was tired? It had been her idea to get some rest, maybe she was just helping him because she knew that he wanted to sleep. She didn't look tired, but Damian had a feeling that Maxie could stay up for days on end and still look great. She was just that hyper, in a good way.

Damian looked at the clothes that were folded on the basin. Black silk. He hated silk, but the gift shop in the hotel didn't have anything but silk pajamas and Damian wasn't about to sleep in his jeans… he needed to save those for the morning. Maybe he could pull it off as a gift for his dad. Sonny didn't mind silk, did he?

Maxie had chosen to let Damian have the bathroom to change in, she instead stripped down to her bra and underwear in the room, with the drapes holding the perverted onlookers at bay. Unlike her boyfriend, Maxie Jones loved silk. She spent a moment holding the material in her hands before nuzzling it playfully with her face. It was the perfect way to end the night… well, almost perfect.

A few moments later she was changed, her other clothes being folded and placed on the dresser. Mac had very reluctantly agreed to not put Damian's name on the most wanted list for 'holding his daughter hostage in New York.' But she had chosen to omit the part about how they needed to share a room, knowing full well that such a single piece of knowledge would send her father over the edge. She didn't want anyone ruining her night. If she only managed to get one night alone with her boyfriend then she wanted it to count. As she looked around, surveying her surroundings, she knew that it would indeed count.

He was afraid, very afraid. He'd never even fathomed sleeping in the same room as Maxie, especially overnight. It didn't mean that he was obligated to forsake his vow of chastity, because he wasn't going to do it, but he didn't want her to have any expectations. He didn't want to hurt her feelings. He didn't want her to hate him.

"Do you need some help getting those on?" Maxie asked with a slight tone of laughter in her voice. He had taken a long time, she was wondering what was going on. Maybe he was waiting for her. She wouldn't mind coming in.

He opened the door, "I'm a big boy, Maxie, I think I can get myself dressed."

She grinned, but it soon faded. Instead she was staying there in shock of the way that he looked. He wasn't exactly buff, but she could see the texture of his body, shielded only slightly by the silk pajamas that covered his body. It was fine by her, she didn't really like the people who spent hours upon hours at the gym making themselves look like they were perfect, Maxie loved Damian for more than just his body, it was the way that he was that was important. Still, she couldn't help but run her hand over the silk pajamas, running her fingers from the navel up to his chest, "I knew silk would look good on you."

"I hate it."

"You hate everything that involves shopping, remember?"

"That's why I have you," Damian gripped Maxie's hand in his, "you can do the shopping for me. You're the one who picked these out, remember?"

"Like I said… I had a feeling, turns out I was right."

"And all it cost me was my dignity…"

"What are you talking about?" She playfully hit him on the shoulder, "I'm not asking you to strip for me so I can submit your pictures to some magazine or anything."

"You wouldn't do that, would you?"

"No, I'd keep them for my private collection."

"Not funny…"

"Not even a little?" She thought it was plenty funny, and she wouldn't even think about doing something like that. If Damian didn't like taking pictures fully clothed, how could she manage to get him to take pictures where he was only partially clothed? She'd have to drug him, and while it was entirely possible to get the drugs necessary to do such things at the hospital she wasn't about to taint their relationship. It was the first good relationship that she had ever truly been in, that alone meant too much to her, she wouldn't just throw it away because she wanted a few minutes of pointless fun.

"Can we change the subject?"

"Depends on what we change it to."

He finally managed to get the small hint of a smile on his face, and there was no reason why he wouldn't smile at the image that was in front of him. "You look beautiful in that nightgown, Maxie."

"And I get to keep it, right?"

"Of course, think of it as a late Christmas present."

"But I loved the present that you got me," she moved the sleeve of the nightgown down her arm, the pale moonlight reflecting off of the metal bracelet that she had yet to take off her body. She hadn't seen anyone because of the vacation, but soon school would resume and she would display the lovely gift her boyfriend got her to all the people around.

"The gown only amplifies the bracelet, which, in turn, is only a reflection of your own beauty."

"You talk pretty."

"What can I say? Pianists are supposed to be romantic…"

"That would make the night perfect…"

"What?"

"A piano," she remarked. "We could put it right over there," she pointed to a bare spot of the room. "Do you think we could get room service to bring us up one?"

"Right now I can barely keep my eyes open, Maxie, I don't think playing a piano at two in the morning is an option, not to mention the fact that we have people around us who probably wouldn't like it."

"The way that you play, they would probably demand several encores…"

"Your praise humbles me, Miss Jones, but I must decline."

"See? There you go again, talking all fancy. How come you've never done it before?"

"Because you've never seen me when I've been going through sleep deprivation before… or maybe all those old movies that Dillon loves so much and forces me to watch are starting to rub off on me."

"He doesn't talk like that to Georgie…"

"Or maybe he does and they just don't tell us."

"Maybe," she said nonchalantly before kissing his lips and pulling away, "but it doesn't matter right now, does it? Let's just go to bed."

Maxie walked over to the bed, thinking that he was following her. She felt the sheets and knew that she would probably get the best sleep of her life while she was safely nestled inside of them. Throwing the top blanket out of the way, she moved her body under and felt complete. Maxie waited a few seconds, waited for her boyfriend to get in, but she soon realized that it hadn't happened. Finally, Maxie looked over and saw him on the couch. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to get some sleep…"

"On the couch?"

"I could sleep on the floor, but the couch has cushions, and I can't expect you to give me the bed, that would be rude."

Maxie was crushed. She had the image of the two of them in bed together, falling asleep in each others arms, and it was never going to happen. She thought that she would have the perfect end to what had been a good day. Even with the problems that John Durant caused, Damian found a way to keep her happy, but now all he was doing was destroying her hopes.

"Maxie?"

"What?"

"Goodnight…"

"Yeah, goodnight."

Damian tried to get some sleep, but he couldn't. There was something that was keeping him awake, the gentle sounds of sniffles. He knew what it was. She was crying. The boy got up from the couch and walked over, standing by her side, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

Damian reached over and turned on the lamp. Maxie tried to hide her face, but she couldn't. He could see eyes were red and the faint trail of tears running down her cheeks. "Maxie…"

"Just go to sleep!"

"What happened? We were having such a good time…"

"Until you ruined it!" She growled. "I was thinking that we would have the most wonderful time together, and we did… until right now."

"Why are you crying?"

"Because you don't love me!"

He was jolted by the accusation, and more than a little hurt, but he knew that she didn't mean it. She was hurt by something that he had done, and he needed to find out what it was. "Of course I love you…"

"You don't even want to sleep in the same bed as me, am I that hideous?"

Finally sitting down next to her, he tried to grab her hand, but she yanked it away in protest. "You're the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen, Maxie, I've told you that how many times since I met you?"

"But you won't…"

"Sleep with you?"

"Why not?"

"Maxie… you know how I am. This is something I can't do."

"I don't want to have sex with you…" she whispered.

"What?"

"Sex," her eyes, still filled with tears, turned to look up at him, "I don't want it… I mean, I do… but I know how you feel about it and I wouldn't want to pressure you into doing something that you might think was wrong. I love you too much to have you do something like that."

"You really mean that?"

"Of course I mean it! Just because I had sex with Kyle… lots of sex… doesn't mean that I expect it from everyone I have a relationship with, especially you."

"That's why I didn't want to sleep in the bed with you," she finally let him have her hand. "I didn't want you to think that we would do something that I wasn't ready to do… I didn't want your expectations to get shattered. I didn't want to hurt you… but by not talking to you and just assuming that you wouldn't be hurt by my choices… I ended up doing just that. I'm so sorry, Maxie."

"There's one way you can make it up to me…"

"Name it."

With her free hand, she patted on the spot next to her. The empty spot. His spot. "No expectations other than just letting me fall asleep in your arms."

"I think I can manage that." He let go of her hand for a moment, walking over to the other side of the bed, feeling no anxiety as he got under the covers. Damian kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tightly. "Like this?"

"Perfect," she rested her head on his chest, "just perfect."


	102. Blood Red

The sunlight fought passed the snow, sending weak but noticeable rays through the clouds. It was still snowing, but the snow had at least went down enough. Hopefully they would be able to go home, something they both wanted.

However, in the all consuming grip of sleep, desires were not played upon. No, for some, the exact opposite was what they went through: fear.

He opened his eyes and looked around. Everything seemed in place. Maxie was still sleeping, looking like the angel that he knew she was. He smiled and moved out from under the grip of her arm, working carefully so that he did not wake her up. Covering her up with some more of the blanket, Damian walked over to the window, looking out at the city. The crowd had dispersed and the place looked a lot better. It was no longer snowing, in fact, it was sunny. He opened the door to the balcony, walking out in only his pajamas while he looked out and saw the birds fly by, a truly serene sight. But birds didn't really fly around in the dead of winter, did they?

Before he had time to comprehend what was going on the sunlight slowly started to ebb, the clouds returning and covering the radiance. He heard the sound of thunder and lightning in the distance and then the slight sound of raindrops hitting the awning above his head. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes it was raining, but it wasn't raining water… was it raining… blood?

"Maxie!" He cried out to her as he turned around and walked back into the room. "Maxie… something's…" he stopped himself as he looked on in horror.

"Surprised to see me?"

Damian shook his head. It was a dream, it had to be a dream. "You can't be here, Alcazar, you're dead!"

"And I look it," Lorenzo was little more than an animated corpse. He opened the flap of his jacket, "You want to see the fatal wound you inflicted upon me? I can guarantee that it isn't pretty…"

"Maxie!"

"She can't hear you, Zuniga," Alcazar smiled devilishly as he pulled a bloodied knife out of his pocket. "Remember this? The same thing I used to make it appear that you were dead to your father. Given the outcome of that altercation I realized that appearances weren't enough… so I took the liberty of guaranteeing the outcome." He turned Maxie's head so that Damian could see her. Her throat was slit, blood staining her pajamas, running into her hair.

"No…"

"You're going to destroy everything that you touch, Zuniga. Everything that you love. You are not worthy of the love that people give you. You never were."

"Shut up!"

Lorenzo grinned even wider. "I can feel it inside of you, Damian. The feeling of hatred that is swelling, growing, taking over your heart. You want revenge for what I just did to you, don't you? Go ahead and take it…"

He blinked again and by the time his eyes were opened he could both see and feel the cold metal of the gun in his hand. "No…"

"If you don't destroy me now, Zuniga, I'll go after your family and your friends. Nobody will be safe, not even your father… or your brothers."

"You're lying!"

"Are you willing to take that risk?" Alcazar closed his eyes. "I'll even give you a clean shot…"

The gun went off, but he swore that he didn't pull the trigger. Maybe it just became second nature, as natural as breathing.

"You can't avoid it, Damian," Alcazar stated meekly. "Damian…"

"Damian?" Maxie had been forced awake by the sound of her boyfriend's turmoil. He was talking in his sleep, but it was more than just talking, he was almost yelling. It was obvious to see that whatever he was going through was painful to him. His body had become covered in sweat. "Damian! Wake up!"

His eyes bolted open as he sat up, the beads of sweat that had gripped onto his hair begin flung off by the sudden movement. His breathing was heavy as he looked around again. Everything was the same, or was it?

"You scared me…"

He heard her, but he wasn't sure if it was just a figment of his imagination. Damian placed his hands on his temples, very much like his father, as he tried to understand what was going on.

"What was it?" She crawled over to him, grabbing his hand. She wasn't going to let go, not until she knew what was wrong.

"Maxie…"

"What? Talk to me… please. You're still scaring me."

"Just hold me…"

She wasted no time in complying with the request, even with his drenched body, she reached over with her arms and refused to release him. "What happened?"

"I thought… I thought you were gone."

"Where would I go?"

"No, I mean… Alcazar killed you, he came back… and…"

She shushed him, her eyes showing how much she wanted to help him but also showing the fear of the fact that she probably couldn't really help him. He was beyond help that she could give him, or anyone else for that matter. "It was just a dream, Damian. Everything is going to be all right."

"I shot him…"

"You did it to protect your father."

"No, I mean I shot him again, in the dream… I had a gun, I don't know where I got it, but I had one and he was right there and he told me to shoot him again… and I wanted him dead… or even more dead, because of what he had done to you."

"He's gone, he won't come back."

"He always comes back, Maxie!" Damian knew that Alcazar was a ghost that would never let his own mind be at ease.

"You've had these dreams before?"

"Not like that… but yeah. I have them a lot…"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because… because I didn't know how to tell you. Look at what they do to me, Maxie… look." He showed her his hand, which was shaking despite his best efforts to calm his nerves.

"The only one who can make these dreams go away is you, Damian," Maxie grabbed his face with her hands. "You're stronger than this, I know you are. You're the strongest person I've ever met… you don't give up, ever. You've fought back from the brink of death and you've made it out without any problems. I know you can do this. Don't give up."

"I wish I didn't kill him…"

"I know you do."

"Why can't I get over it?" He closed his eyes, "I know that I had to do it, I know that… everyone keeps on telling me that I did what was necessary and I know that they're right, but I can't stop thinking about it!"

"A man is dead because of what you did, you're not like your father or Jason, you don't do this for a living…"

"You're not supposed to know that."

"But I do, I've seen it firsthand. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone what happens in your fathers life… not that we don't all know, but you can trust me."

"I know I can trust you."

"Then trust me when I say that what you did wasn't a bad thing. Alcazar was going to kill your father, he kidnapped you and your aunt… you didn't have a choice. You feel bad because you're just like that… but you don't have to keep on beating yourself up about it. Damian, you're going to drive yourself insane while you worry about what you did and why… I don't want to lose you."

"Maxie…"

"If I could offer you some magical medicine that would make everything seem like it was better, I would, but nobody has that power. Not even your father."

"He can't know about this…"

"You should tell him…"

"I know I should tell him, but I don't want to. At least not yet. He knows how much this is affecting me, if I keep on letting it bother me, if I show that to him, I don't know what he'll do. I don't want him worrying about me."

"You're his son… he's going to worry about you all the time no matter what you do."

"Maxie, you need to promise me that you won't tell him anything. Please!"

She'd never seen him that vulnerable in her life. She knew that he was probably more tore up when he had to go to the church and revisit the painful memories of his mother's passing, but she wasn't there to witness that. All she saw was the fact that her boyfriend was on the verge of tears and he was looking to her to help keep his secrets, secrets that she knew would destroy him if he let them. She just had to make sure that they didn't. "I won't…"

"Promise me…"

"I promise that I won't tell your father anything about this, but you have to promise me that you'll stop worrying about it so much…"

"All right," he nodded. "I promise." He knew that he needed to stop worrying about the past so much. It couldn't be changed, and deep down he knew that he wouldn't change it if he had the chance. If he had another chance to take back everything that had happened on that night he knew that he wouldn't take it. He could have just injured Alcazar, but then Sonny would have killed him and Damian would have worried about his father murdering a man because of him. It was easier the way that things had happened, not much easier, but easier nonetheless.

"Why don't you go take a shower?" Maxie suggested. "The warm water will help calm you down."

"That's a good idea." Damian stood up and started towards the door, but he looked over at Maxie, who was looking at him and he could see that she wanted to do more for him. He wanted more from her. He didn't want to be alone. "Could… could you come with me?"

"You want me to stay outside the shower…"

"No… take one… with me…"

"Damian…"

"Please, Maxie, I don't want to be alone right now." He didn't want to leave her alone, either. He wasn't superstitious, but he could be at ease knowing that she was right there with him.

"You're sure about this?" Even if he said that he was, she knew she wouldn't fully believe that he was. "I don't want you to regret anything…" she could handle not having sex with him, even though it was hard at times, but she couldn't handle him looking at her with guilty eyes.

"Any regrets that I would have wouldn't be from you. But if you don't want to… I can't make you."

She stood up and walked over to him, holding his hand as she opened the bathroom door. "Come on." Maxie had no real expectations. She didn't even think that she could help him, despite his claims that she could. All she knew was that she needed to be there for him, clothed or not. She loved him too much to watch him slip down that road.


	103. They Care, They Just Show It In Odd Ways

Quartermaine Household-

He stayed awake for a good amount of time while she rested next to him. It wasn't that he didn't think about sex, he did, but he also knew that having sex in the living room of his family's mansion wasn't exactly the way that he wanted either of them to lose their virginity. Besides, if Dillon knew his mother, which he did, she had stayed up well after they had gone to sleep, just to be sure. He kept a watchful ear out, getting, at best, half-sleep while he was inside the mansion. It was the last place that Dillon ever wanted to be, but he didn't have a choice. Brook Lynn was his niece, and she was in part his responsibility. He needed to keep her safe, and in doing so it required that he put aside his personal feelings for the people that he was related to. Brook wasn't one of them, she didn't deserve to suffer just because she lived with them. Dillon had often felt that way about himself. When he first arrived it was like that for him. He was always being profiled as just another one of the rich Quartermaine's, Port Charles elite, but he wasn't like them. He didn't want to be a doctor, or a businessman. He didn't fit any of the accepted criteria that came with the stigma, but did it matter? No. All they saw was the name, and it was more than enough to put him on plenty of blacklists, including Mac's.

But Georgie wasn't like that. He knew it from the beginning. She was kind and loving. Georgie was everything that Dillon wanted before he knew that he wanted anything, but the minute he realized the type of person that she was it was all over. The only thing that Dillon wanted from that moment on was to be with her for the rest of his life. It might have taken some time, he might have doubted just how true his love for her was, but in the end it worked out. He was with her, under a blanket on the couch of the mansion.

Brook had stayed up in her room the whole night, trying not to let her sobs be heard by anyone. Her mother and father had both tried to make an effort to break her barriers down and get her to talk, but Brook wasn't going to have any of it. She didn't want to talk with them, she didn't really want to talk with anyone… well, almost anyone. Certainly nobody that she could talk to right away.

But that was the night before. She'd never spent a New Years Eve so miserably in her life. She vowed that she wouldn't do it again. Brook was already letting her family shape the way that she acted, which was something that she never wanted. Brook Lynn Ashton was fiercely independent, or so she liked to tell herself. Maybe it was all just a ruse, a lie that she told to make her image seem better. Who knew? She wasn't sure, and if she wasn't sure how could anyone else be?

The young lady walked into the main hallway and could see the faint outline of Dillon's shoulder in the living room. She hadn't expected him to stay. She wasn't even sure it was him. Curious, Brook walked over and saw him. He looked at her and for a moment she froze. Was he mad at her? He had every reason to be. It didn't take a genius to realize that she was the reason he stuck around. When she saw him give a meek smile she returned the gesture, putting a hand up as well.

Dillon turned his head away from his niece for a moment before kissing his girlfriend on the forehead and placing her head gently on the cushions of the couch. Georgie apparently slept like a log, but at least she didn't snore. It was a good thing to know. Dillon didn't like it when people snored. His mother, try as she might to be the epitome of all that made a lady, snored quite loudly. Many a night Dillon would end up sleeping in the hotel lobby, waking up with enough time to get back into the room so his mother wouldn't be aware of her faults. At that time Dillon didn't really think she had any. How wrong he was.

Dillon followed Brook as she tried to walk away, sliding on his socks completely by accident when he stopped after picking up his pace. He ended up saving himself from the eminent crash by holding onto one of the tables. "Uncle Dillon has just proven to you, young niece, that attempting to sock skate around the Quartermaine mansion is not, I repeat, not a good idea."

"Uncle Dillon…" she scoffed. "You really don't expect me to call you that, do you?"

"You can call me whatever you like…"

"Even…"

"As long as it involves my name, be it Uncle Dillon, or Dillon, nothing else. I don't need you calling me some strange name that I won't understand. I hate nicknames…"

"Relax, Dillon, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Good." He changed the focus from his folly and the moniker that he would accept to what was really important to him, making sure that she was all right. "You didn't come back down last night…"

Brook sat on the lowest step of the grand staircase, the cold wood of the steps instantly chilling the exposed parts of her back. She didn't mind, in fact, she found it to be quite comfortable. "I didn't really want to talk with anyone…"

"Do you want to talk now?"

"No, not really…"

"Well, tough," Dillon sat next to her. He had to admit that he was quite fond of sitting on the stairs of the mansion. It was where he did his best brooding. He would look at the door and think about running away, but it never did him much good. They were just thoughts, thoughts that rarely, if ever, found any sort of further development. "I'm pulling the uncle card on you… talk."

"There isn't an uncle card."

"Yes, there is. I left it in my other wallet at Jason's apartment, but its there."

"You could have used it more often…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, Dillon, that I didn't even meet you until Christmas Eve," she looked at him, the pain in her eyes evident. "I didn't know any of the people in this house, not even my own grandmother…"

"Trust me, you're a better person for not knowing Tracy Quartermaine…" sometimes that he wished he could have the luxury, but it didn't work out that way.

"Look, everyone thinks that they can just welcome me with open arms, but if they wanted to care about me so much why the hell didn't they ever pick up a phone, or just come for a weekend visit? Do you know how many times that my dad actually came to see me after my parents split up? I can count them on two hands…"

"I know how you feel…"

"Sure you do."

"No, really, I do. I was like you, Brook, you know that, I told you that. I was born here, yeah, and I might have spent a little time around the mansion when I was a baby, but after my mom left New York City I never had any contact with any of these people, and as it was they didn't come around when we were just in the big city. I thought they didn't care about me… and then my mom expects me to come here and be her planted reason for returning. The only one who I ended up trusting was your dad, and Lila."

"Why would you trust him?"

"Because he was the only one who I thought I could?" Dillon shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know… Ned was there for me when I needed someone. He wasn't like Grandfather, threatening to throw me into military school every time I turned my head around. Ned's my godfather… as creepy as that might sound. He's supposed to look out for me, I guess."

"I wish I could trust him…"

"You should," Dillon stood up. "Ned's made a lot of mistakes in his life, and I'm sure he's aware of it, but the way that everything happened with you is one thing that I know he regrets above all others. He would tell me about how much he wanted to see you, Brook… he loves you, I know he does."

"Why are you sticking up for him, Dillon? You don't owe him anything. Yeah, sure, he helped you when you first got here, but you've probably made up for that."

"No child deserves to think that their father doesn't love them," Dillon closed his eyes, because he was almost certain that Paul Hornsby didn't love him. The man had never tried to make any sort of contact with him… why would it matter unless Paul didn't want Dillon in his life? "I don't want you thinking that. I wouldn't want you thinking that if you were just some random person on the street… which you could be, given the way you dress."

"I don't dress like a bum!"

"Please, I remember seeing plenty of teenagers around Europe who tried to do the whole semi-Goth look with all the jewelry and bracelets, then they would just end up trying to bum some cash off of people who walked by so that they could afford a pack of cigs. Not exactly the most original look."

"You should be one to talk… what are you trying for? The rebel who still gives in to corporate America by spending plenty of money on various hair products?"

"Low blow…"

"You called me a bum!"

"What's going on here?" Lois had been stirred by the sound of the two teenagers playfully arguing, at first she thought it was nothing but a dream, a dream where her child wasn't going through some sort of emotional turmoil. "Brookie…"

"Hey, ma."

"Morning, Lois," Dillon wondered if it was in his best interests to just walk away and leave the two of them to work out their issues. He didn't want to be a part of another family squabble, even if it was with people that he didn't necessarily consider to be Quartermaine's…

"Are you hungry, baby?" Lois asked as she came down the stairs.

"Not really…"

"Well I don't want to yell at you on an empty stomach…"

"Why are you going to yell at her?"

Brook gave him a cool glance, "She's from Brooklyn, yelling's what she does… you live around Sonny, think about it."

Dillon contemplated the statement for a moment before realizing just how true it was. Sonny did spend a lot of time yelling about something. Maybe it was a trait. He couldn't really remember that much from his time in the big city, but there were a lot of people who yelled.

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady!" Lois snapped.

"Lois, chill…"

"And you, don't tell me how to raise my daughter!"

"I'm not!" Dillon put his hands up and backed away, "I'm just saying that Brook wasn't having the best day of her life yesterday and she really shouldn't be punished for it. You swear you've never had a day like that growing up? Think about your teenage years…"

"She's trying to relive them."

"Brookie…" Lois grumbled.

"Look at your pajamas, ma!" Brook pointed. "Those look like the kinds of things that girls on the cheerleading team would wear, not a mother!"

"I've always believed that fashion shouldn't be based on age." Lois stopped focusing on the trivial, realizing that her daughter was more important than the hip clothing that she chose to wear. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'll manage…"

Lois hugged her daughter tightly, "I know how much you like to think that you can handle everything, but you can't. Nobody can. Eventually they need someone, and I want you to think that you can always come to me…"

"I know, ma."

Dillon stood there and observed. Lois and Brook, for all their differences, were still quite close, he could see it. Lois wanted the best for her daughter. It made Dillon jealous that she had such a good, strong relationship with her child when all Dillon got from his mother was the feeling that he wasn't good enough. He didn't question that Tracy loved him, he questioned if she did it because she felt like it, or simply because she carried him for nine months.


	104. Back At Home

Port Charles-

They'd made their way back to the small little town that most people forgot about shortly after they ended their stay at the hotel. Maxie was refreshed and altogether content with everything that had happened, but she was still worried. It always worried her when she thought about what could happen to him, what was going on in his mind. He said that he trusted her, and she believed him when he said that he did, but there were still things that he kept from her, things that didn't involve his father, things that involved him. She should have known. Being involved with a Corinthos man was just asking for at least a few secrets to be hidden in the proverbial closet. But, as with any woman who ended up falling in love with one of the Corinthos men, she didn't let the fact that they were so stoic in their ways stop her from worrying about him.

He hadn't said much to her on the fly back to Port Charles. She wasn't expecting some heartfelt confession, and she didn't mind the fact that he was so quiet. He would smile at her while she hugged him on the couches in the plane, but that was almost the total extent of the feeling that she was getting from him. She was worried that he was slipping away from her right before her eyes, worried that there wasn't much that she could do about it. If Maxie lost him she didn't know what she would do. She didn't know how she would go on.

"Sorry about this…"

Finally, something out of his mouth. She tried to sound supportive and unbiased as she spoke, "About what?"

"About how I'm acting…"

"If I had a bad dream like that I would be quiet and reserved, too," she gripped onto his arm and held it tightly, "I don't hold it against you, Damian. You helped me when I needed someone to just be there for me, remember?"

"Of course I remember." He could never forget the way she was when she was worried about how she was unworthy of anything, including the heart that she had managed to get from her late cousin. "You scared me."

"And you're scaring me…"

"I don't mean to."

"I know you don't, but that doesn't mean that you don't actually do it. We do things without even thinking about them and we don't worry about what could happen to the people that we love."

"I don't want to push you away," he admitted. "I know how my dad acts when he gets overloaded with everything. I've heard the stories." There were things that Maxie couldn't be aware of, such as Sonny's mental state at times. Sonny himself had been the one to inform the boy of the fact that he had been through a few breakdowns, it was part of their 'no secrets' amendment to their relationship. Sonny didn't have to tell Damian about them, he wouldn't have asked, but the fact that he managed to do it meant a lot to the young man, as if it were a sign of complete trust. "I just don't want that to happen with you and me."

"Then don't let it…"

"What?"

She looked up at him with her beautiful blue eyes. She didn't want to sound like she was forcing him to do something, because she wasn't. She was offering her advice and that was something that Maxie could not do on very many occasions, but she felt that she could do it for him. "You have the power to stop this, Damian, you're the only one who can do it, but you have to decide that you want everything that has been keeping you up at night, everything that has been haunting you in your sleep, to end."

"You know I do…"

"I know you do, and you know you do, but you're the one who isn't actually doing anything about it."

"What can I do?"

"I don't know. Talk to someone. It doesn't even have to be me. Talk to your father, your aunt, your grandfather, Dillon, Ric, anyone. Nobody is going to push you away if you need help, Damian, at least not the people who care about you. If you go and ask some random person off the corner of the street for help they might not give it to you, but I know for a fact that you come first for me, that if you have a problem I'm going to do whatever I can to help you, even if its just what I'm doing now… just listening."

"How many times have I told you that I don't deserve you?"

She blushed, "You're being modest again, because you know that you do. If anything, I don't deserve you."

"Let me walk you home…"

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Maxie, your father knows that we had to stay in New York together, I don't think he's going to have someone there to arrest me on the spot."

"Again, are you sure about that?"

Damian thought about the question for a moment. When it came to Mac Scorpio one could never be too sure, especially when it involved the wellbeing of one of his daughters. Mac was quite like a fierce dog, able to get lockjaw and never let go until the problem was dealt with. Damian, to Mac, was a problem, but he had yet to receive the full effect of Mac's overprotective complex. The relationship between him and Maxie was still young, though. Dillon had more than a few horror stories. "I have Justus on my speed dial…"

"That might help."

"Wait," Damian muttered. "He can't know…"

"About the fact that we took a shower together and slept in the same bed? I'm not stupid, Damian, I know that I can't tell him that."

"Did it change anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happened between us… did it change anything about our relationship?"

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't," she grabbed his hand. "But you have to understand something, I still love you, I probably love you more now that I've seen that you're willing to share more things with me than you were when we started going out. You're willing to share your bed, and, in some ways, your body, but you don't expect anything out of me. Do you know how few people there are that actually don't expect anything more than just sleeping together in the same bed with their girlfriend?"

"You're not going to compare me to Kyle again, are you?"

"No, I'm not, but he is part of the group of guys that I know who would have been putting on a condom the moment the door closed in that hotel room… maybe even not putting on a condom, just getting naked and expecting me to…"

"I'm not ready for that."

She nodded, touching his cheek with her free hand. "I told you last night, I don't have any expectations other than when you're ready and you think that the time is right I'll be ready, too." She had a very strange relationship with her boyfriend. Usually it was the man who had to be the 'waiter,' but she ended up being the one who was just waiting on bated breath for the perfect moment when she would have him in every way possible. Maxie was learning patience because of her relationship with her boyfriend, it was working for her.

"You're understanding of me and my beliefs…" not necessarily religious beliefs, although they had something to do with it, but just the fact that he had things he wanted to do with his girlfriend and things that he didn't.

"At least now I won't be asking about your birthmark…"

"I hate that thing…"

"It's cute."

"You're just saying that."

"Maybe…" she hadn't really thought about it until that moment, but she was more the prowler than him. The whole time they were in the shower together it was her who was looking at him, examining every inch of his fully exposed body with childish curiosity. He just focused on her face, or kept his eyes closed.

"Thank you for doing that…"

"You're sure that's what you wanted?"

"I told you… I was sure, I'm still sure. I don't regret taking a shower with you, Maxie. I don't regret needing your touch when I was scared."

"I don't have any regrets either," she tugged on his arm softly, walking towards her home.

Outside the Scorpio Household-

The walk wasn't that long, and they were certainly chattier about things when compared to the plane flight back to Port Charles, but they were just making small talk. The bigger issues were those that couldn't be solved just by a conversation while they had a leisurely stroll through Port Charles.

"You want to come inside?"

"No, thanks," he let go of her hand, "I'll call you later tonight, though."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know, wherever. Don't worry about me."

"You make it seem like I can just turn it off. I'm going to worry about you no matter what."

"I won't do anything dangerous…"

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" When Corinthos men said that they weren't going to do anything dangerous it was a white flag comment. She knew that. Corinthos men didn't really know how to do not doing anything dangerous, it came with the name.

"I swear!"

"All right…"

"Oh, goodie…"

Maxie was taken back by his attitude shift. She heard the door close and she knew why. Turning around, she saw Mac walking towards them. "Dad!" She tried to liven the mood by going over to him and giving him a hug. "Happy New Year!"

"Save it, Maxie."

Damian groaned. He knew what was coming. A lecture about how he was a horrible person who was only going to bring ruin to Maxie's life. Mac had all of his speeches on a disk somewhere in the house. They just needed to find it.

"Dad…"

"Go inside," Mac ordered. "You're not in trouble, either of you, I promise, but I just want to talk with Damian for a minute."

"But…"

"Maxie…"

"Go on, Maxie," Damian nodded. "I can take care of myself."

Mac waited until Maxie was gone before giving the boy a stare down. "I'll always have my reservations about the two of you being together, but she's my daughter and I believe that I have a right to worry about her."

"You do."

"That said… I just thought you should know that I do not blame you for what happened last night. You couldn't have done anything about the weather. I thought about holding it against you, but that would just be wrong. And, deep down, I felt better knowing that my daughter was with someone that loved her while she was staying in the big city. You kept her safe, I owe you my thanks."

"No thanks necessary, Mac," Damian was surprised by the respect that was being displayed, but he appreciated it all the same. "I love her too much to let anything bad happen to her."


	105. Walking In

Jounreylove- Yeah, Brook did have a hard time without Ned, so her anger towards both her mother and especially her father is quite justified. Also glad to see that you're enjoying the other parts.

Story-

Kelly's-

Like clockwork, the boy returned to the diner where everything seemed to end up. It was the great convergent point of Port Charles. No matter what the problem was, it would eventually find a part of itself going to Kelly's diner. Who was Kelly, anyway? Maybe she was some sort of voodoo priestess who put a curse on her diner to make it seem important and special. There were worse curses in the world, that much was certain. Nonetheless, it had good fries.

There were a few people who were inside the diner, but it was still relatively early in the morning. Kelly's didn't have the biggest breakfast rush in the world, but it did have a good lunch and dinner rush that made up for the somewhat lax breakfast hours. They all looked at him and he wondered if they knew, wondered if they were looking at him and thinking that he had become impure. He paid them as little attention as he could. He had lost his purity of spirit long before he went to bed with Maxie.

Damian's eyes glanced at all the tables and when he was finished he let out a small, shallow, sigh of relief. He didn't want to see Bobbie. Not yet. He didn't want to tell her that the man that was Carly's father was not the best person in the world. John Durant was, in fact, one of the worst. Damian was almost certain that Carly was John's daughter. He could see things that they shared, similar traits. The immediate hostility against him upon their first meeting seemed inconsequential, there were other things, physical things, that put the two of them together.

The young man wasn't sure how Bobbie would take it. She had spent so long worrying about the secret getting out that she eventually cracked under the pressure and got him, someone who she wasn't even related to, into the mess. Bobbie wanted John to be a good man, Damian did as well, but the fact was quite different from the fiction and he wasn't sure how she would take it. She'd gone through enough… she didn't need any extra stress, and he didn't want to give her any.

Penny was working at the counter instead of Elizabeth, and he could hear someone in the distance working the fire. It was probably his grandfather. He didn't really want to see Mike, either. Mike might have seen through his attempts at playing it cool. Grandfathers were like that, weren't they? Elias could see through him like a book. It was impossible to keep a secret from that man, at least in person. Maybe he could get away with it on the phone, but he wasn't ready to take that chance.

"Did you come to see Mike?" Penny asked. She didn't know Damian that well, but she was almost certain that anyone who had Mike Corbin's blood in their veins couldn't be a very bad person. She was almost certain that Sonny's image was entirely based on the opinion of the media and not really like that. Although she had seen a few times when they were together. Sonny and Mike seemed to have some tension about them that almost smothered the room. It wasn't Penny's place to ask, so she didn't.

"No, I just came to have some alone time. Do me a favor, don't tell him I'm here, okay?"

"Yeah… sure…"

Damian walked into the stairwell and up the small flight of stairs into the upper level of Kelly's. It wasn't a bad place to live. He would have been perfectly happy living in the apartment that was still rented out to him. It was a good place to just get away from everything, everyone. The perfect place to have some time alone to himself, which was what he wanted and needed at that moment.

He picked the key out of his pocket and placed it in the lock, unlocking the door and pushing it open. Damian wasn't expecting anything to go wrong, but the moment he walked in he found himself jumping back and making a very noticeable gasp.

Ric and Elizabeth looked at each other with wide eyes before they looked at him. Both were fully clothed, but they still felt somewhat dirty about what they had done. "Damian…"

Damian put his arms up, not wanting to hear Ric's excuses. His Uncle was a lawyer, he was good at telling stories. "I'm just going to leave the two of you alone…"

"Damian!" Elizabeth got out of bed, showing that there was nothing going on between them aside from the love that she had in her heart. "Please, just listen."

"You're adults, you don't need to explain anything to me…"

"We didn't do anything!" Elizabeth pointed out. "We just needed a place to stay for the night."

"And your apartments were out of the question because?"

"We got snowed in," Ric didn't like the fact that such a thing ended up being the truth, but he couldn't do anything about it. That was what happened. He didn't have the power to change the weather, no matter how much he wanted to do something, anything, to get rid of the damned snow the night before.

"You got snowed in here, too?"

"It was bad," Ric said with a nod. "I imagine that you didn't get back home from New York…"

"How'd you know I was in New York?"

"I still worked with Mac yesterday," he replied with a sly smile. "He told me plenty of things…"

"He wasn't mean to you, was he?"

"Define mean."

The young man shook his head, "Don't worry about it. Look, I know that the two of you probably don't want me to be here…"

"Why would you say that?" Elizabeth wondered. She loved Damian dearly. She didn't want him to think like she wanted to push him away. She knew for a fact that Ric didn't. The boy was pretty much the only person who had any amount of shared blood in his veins that didn't try and throw Ric out the moment he got within a ten mile radius.

"Because I'm old enough to know that in situations like this, unless you're a really strange person, an audience isn't really desired."

"I told you," Ric stood up, pushing his shoes aside, "nothing happened."

"And I believe you both, really, I do, but you still probably wanted some time alone. Someone might as well get some use out of the room…"

"Damian, stop," Elizabeth called to him. "We… Ric, needs to tell you something…"

Ric looked over at her, unsure of if it was the time and place to tell him that they were going to be married the next day. "Are you sure about this? There are better times to tell him…"

"You didn't arrest my father last night, did you?"

"No…"

"Uncle Jason?"

"No…"

"Carly?"

"Nobody got arrested!" Ric finally stated. He saw Elizabeth giggling. "What, you think this is funny?"

"I do."

"Yeah?" Ric grinned at her. "I know other ways to make you laugh."

"Remember me?" Damian piped in, "The audience that you guys apparently wanted? Yeah, the audience doesn't mind displays of affection… but innuendos, not so much."

"Sorry," Ric muttered. "Look, kid… you know that we're getting married… but yesterday we decided that we wanted to get married tomorrow."

"Really?"

Elizabeth nodded. "We didn't want to wait, but we figured that New Years Eve and New Years day are probably pretty big days when it comes to the whole getting married thing."

"Some people want to make sure they get married on a Holiday, it makes memorizing their anniversary easier."

Elizabeth glanced at him, "You said that was part of the reason why you wanted to get married tomorrow. It would be easier on you!"

"You'll note that I didn't say anything that made me separate from the clump of people who do things like this for that very reason…"

"You… you're a crafty little bugger."

"I didn't graduate from an Ivy league school without picking up a few tricks…"

"Subtext!"

The two lovebirds were once more halted by the young man, who seemed to be more jittery than usual. Ric spoke again, this time changing the subject completely, "Are you all right? You seem a little tense…"

"I just spent a twenty-four hour period in a city with millions of people…"

"You were born in Los Angeles, you've almost always spent time in a city with millions of people…"

"Maybe the smog got to me… it's not Los Angeles smog, its special smog."

"Damian…"

"I'm fine," he said stubbornly. "I promise you both that I'm okay. I'm just a little tired. I didn't get much sleep…"

"You were with your girlfriend, alone, for the first time…"

"Uncle Ric, you keep on going with that train of thought and I'm going to make sure that you don't even make it to your wedding day…"

Ric smiled once more. He had often wondered what it would be like to have a son, or a daughter. Children of any gender, really. Damian wasn't his child, but the boy was his nephew, and there were times when Ric couldn't help but think that he was taking a fatherly role in Damian's life.

"So…" Elizabeth continued the conversation. "When we get married we don't want a big ceremony or anything, but we need two witnesses…"

"You want me to be at your wedding?"

"It would mean a lot to me," Ric stood by Elizabeth, putting his hand on Damian's shoulder. "I didn't have family at my first wedding to Elizabeth, Damian, because nobody in my family really wanted to be there with me…"

"You mean so much to both of us," Elizabeth wrapped her arm around Ric's free arm. "If I knew that I would be marrying into your family when I met you that day you came down I would have been pretty happy… you're a wonderful person, we both want you there to celebrate with us."

"I can try and see if…"

"No," Ric shook his head. "I know what you're thinking, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for even thinking about it, but we both know that your father won't have any part of my wedding to Elizabeth. Neither will Michael, or anyone else. They don't like me… and while I hate that I can never redeem myself in their eyes I'm content with knowing that I'm doing everything I possibly can to make it seem like I'm a better person."

"He's your brother, he should be there…"

Ric chuckled, "Your father would just do something to undermine the beauty of my love with Elizabeth. There are times when I want Sonny around me, Damian, there are times when I wish that your father could be more than just an enemy to me. I would love to have him there if I knew that he could behave himself, but the fact of the matter is that we both know that isn't possible."

"Emily and Nikolas took off for Russia to spend their New Years, they won't be back for awhile," it was sad that she couldn't have the four musketeers with her on her wedding day once more, but she would manage to get over it. "Lucky's already agreed to be there… if you come, we're good."

"You can even bring your girlfriend along if you like… there's cake for plenty."

He looked at the two of them. They had gone through so much, but he knew that they could find a way to be happy. "I'll be there…"


	106. Resolution

Note: SORRY! I added the chapter yesterday to the upload, but I didn't add it to the story. So, today, two chapters. Again, so sorry!

Story-

Corinthos Household-

Sonny wouldn't likely admit it, but he did have a very nice time on New Years Eve. He did love to be with the people who he cared about, alone, just talking about things that they sometimes forgot. Sonny knew full well that it was because of him that his family could never have the type of happiness that they deserved. He could shower them with all the gifts that his money could buy, but in the end it wouldn't matter. The one thing that Sonny couldn't give them was the one thing that they should have been able to get regardless of who they were related to: safety. He couldn't grant them the assurance that they would make it to the end of the day. While it was true that such things could never be certain, Sonny knew that there was even less of a chance for him. Every night he thanked God for giving him and his family just another day together, knowing that each day meant they were one day closer to everything ending. He didn't want that, but it was one of the few things that was beyond the power of Sonny Corinthos to permit.

The crime lord sat on the couch, which had yet to be moved back to the usual location, and reflected on his life. The mistakes that he had made, the great times that he had with his friends and with his family. All in all, Sonny had plenty of regrets, but deep down he knew that his life was good, despite everything that was thrown at him. He hadn't been beat down yet, and that was something that most people in his position couldn't claim. Sonny was far too stubborn to just play dead. Too stubborn and too proud.

"Daddy?"

Sonny's brown eyes looked towards the top of the stairs. Michael was still too short to be seen over the banister, but that would change in a few years. The boy was growing up, and Sonny wasn't sure what that would bring. He'd never raised a teenager before, but he knew what it was like to be one. There were things that Sonny could do in order to prevent Michael's formative teenage years from being like his, but ultimately no matter who the person was they usually went though the same things, the crisis of identity, the need to break away. Sonny was going to lose his little boy.

"You're always up before I wake up," Michael made his way down the stairs. "Even though you go to bed a lot later than I do."

"One of us needs to be up before you do in case you have something that you need, buddy. And since your mother hates getting up in the morning, I get to be the one." Sonny didn't want to tell Michael the complete truth, the truth being that he couldn't sleep that long because he would be haunted by his dreams. Dreams of Lily, of the child that they lost, and now of that night where Damian was conceived. They were just some of the nightmares that would plague Sonny for the rest of his life. Of course, Sonny did not show his torment, especially not to the boy. Instead he grinned, "I don't mind, I like being alone with you, even if it's just for a little while."

Michael made his way over to the couch and sat next to his father. How he idolized Sonny. Some worried about what type of a person that Sonny Corinthos really was, but Michael was not among them. He knew that Sonny was a good man, but he also knew that his father was not without his flaws. Everyone had something that they were bad at. People couldn't be perfect. Sonny was the closet thing to perfection that Michael needed. "I like spending time with you, too…"

Sonny kissed the boy on the forehead, knowing full well that the time was dwindling when Michael wanted to spend time with him. At most, Sonny had about three years left to him, and he would make the most of that time. "You know how much of an honor it is for me to be your father, don't you?"

"You're the best dad in the whole world, I wouldn't want anyone else…"

"Thanks, buddy."

Michael leaned against his father's shoulder. He was still tired, but his mind was as active as ever. "How do you think it was for Damian?"

Sonny wasn't sure what Michael was asking. "How was what for him?"

"Growing up. He didn't have a daddy, right?"

"No," Sonny's response was filled with the remorse that came with the realization that he had managed to skip out on being a father to one of his children for such a long period of time. "Damian didn't have a dad."

"So who did he go to when he needed someone like I need you?"

"He has his grandfather. Elias would do anything for Damian, he still would. Your big brother is lucky that he had someone like that in his life growing up, someone who could tell him what to do and how to be the great person that he is." In truth, Elias was probably a better person to be around growing up than Sonny could ever be, but Sonny knew that he and his oldest child loved each other.

"I just think about what would happen if I didn't have you," Michael's mind was always thinking about the what ifs, just like any other child. "I don't want to think about things like that, but I can't help it."

"You don't have to worry about it, buddy. I'm here for you, and I'm here for Morgan and Damian, too. I'm going to be here for as long as I can and even when I'm not you're going to do the right thing, because you have a good heart and you would never do something to hurt another person."

"When I'm a dad I want to be just like you."

It was a compliment, but it wasn't exactly the best thing to say. Michael didn't know everything about Sonny. He was a good father, or so he liked to tell himself, but that didn't mean that he was infallible. "When you become a father, and you had better wait for a long time before you do become one, you'll do everything that you can to be a good dad, that's all you can do. Nobody knows how to be a perfect dad, we just learn as we go along. When you were younger I was nervous. I'd never really been a father to anyone before, and I didn't really have the best examples on how to do things, but I'd like to think that I managed to do pretty well despite those disadvantages."

"Uncle Jason was like that, too…"

"What?"

"He was telling me about how when I was a baby and he was my dad that he didn't know how to do anything. He would be afraid of what would happen when I would cry or when I would need something to eat. It's funny because I didn't know that Uncle Jason didn't know how to do something. He's good at everything."

"Yeah… Jason's good at everything. Except Dancing."

"Dancing?"

Sonny chuckled, "Don't worry about it."

"Why do you two always get to have some fun without me?" Carly was holding Morgan as she came down the stairs, still dressed in her nightgown. "Sometimes I wish that I had a daughter so I would have some girl time."

"Girl time?" Michael made a face, "Yuck…"

"What have you been filling my child's mind with, Sonny? Have you been turning him against the female gender?"

"Kid has a mind of his own, Carly."

"Mommy, does Uncle Jason dance well?"

"Uncle Jason can dance… let's leave it at that." She still managed to get a chuckle out of the way that he looked when he was trying to dance with her. That reason alone was worth having a second party the next year. "Happy New Year, Michael."

"Happy New Year, Mommy. You too, daddy."

"We saved you some cake, just like we promised." Sonny's culinary talents truly knew no bounds.

"Can I have it?"

"Why don't we save it for a little later, Mr. Man?" Carly suggested. "You need a good breakfast first, you can have some after that, I promise."

The door opened and Damian walked in. He saw his family, all eyes were on him. "Morning…"

"Damian!" Michael rushed off the couch and towards his brother.

Before he had a chance to even blink he felt a vice grip on his leg as his little brother continued to squeeze, "Don't cut off the circulation…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing." He smiled. "Michael… sorry about yesterday. I know I said I would be here with you last night…"

"Daddy told me that you couldn't get on the plane because of all the snow. I know it isn't your fault. I'm just glad that you're here now."

He ran his hand through Michael's already messed up hair. Bed hair was not kind to people. "So am I."

"Did you have fun?" Carly asked. "I remember my first visit to New York… I couldn't stop looking around, everything seemed so different, even the McDonalds."

"I don't want to go back… too many people."

"Just be happy you live here," Sonny stood up and walked towards them. "Come on, buddy, we'll make you something to eat for breakfast. Damian, you want something?"

"No, I'm not hungry."

"Carly?"

She shook her head, "I'll just grab some fruit or something a little later. I should feed Morgan in a few minutes anyway."

Sonny and Michael walked away into the kitchen. It was then that Damian realized he was all alone with Carly. Morgan was there, but the baby was too young to really be a factor in the whole situation that was there. A situation that Carly herself wasn't even aware of.

"But you did have fun, right?" She continued with her train of thought. "I mean, even though you don't want to go back…"

"It was all right."

"Maxie must have loved it."

"What makes you think that?"

"A college student with a rich boyfriend going to the big city for the first time?" Carly scoffed. "Come on, Damian, some things are just obvious…"

"I did have to pull her away from Tiffany's…"

"Ah, the blue box…"

"You scare me sometimes, Carly, you know that?"

"I scare lots of people quite frequently. It's my special talent…"

"Aside from shopping?"

"That's not special, that is my god given right as a member of the female gender." Carly felt something at the bottom of her foot. "Damian… could you hold him for a second?"

"Sure…" he still wasn't comfortable with holding Morgan, but she did say for a second, he would even give her a minute, but nothing more than that. "Hey, kid." He refused to be one of those people who was reduced to baby talk, there were some limits that even he would not lower himself to.

Carly finished scratching the itch that had made her relinquish her hold on her child. "You never did say why you needed to go. I mean you've been here for so long already it just seemed weird that you would go to New York on New Years Eve out of the blue. That's the kind of thing that you would plan for months in advance."

He tried to keep his face from showing her just how uncomfortable he was with the question. Bobbie would hate him forever if he told Carly that he went because she wanted him to find Carly's father. "I just wanted to do something special with Maxie for New Years Eve…"

"Did you make a resolution?"

"I don't do things like that."

"I do. I made it my resolution to find my real dad…" It was one that Carly would make sure she managed to keep.


	107. Farewell to Bessie

Morgan Household-

Dillon walked into his home, his true home, after spending too much time inside of the walls of what was once his 'home.' But, unlike living with Jason and Courtney, the Quartermaine mansion wasn't really a home to him in every sense of the word. It was just the place that he lived. He didn't feel welcome, he didn't feel wanted, he didn't feel like he actually wanted to be there, either. But with Jason and Courtney everything was different. He liked living in the penthouse. He liked being closer to the people that he cared about, his girlfriend and his best friend. Dillon enjoyed the freedom that came with being inside the Morgan home. They didn't expect him to report in at every hour. They didn't mind where he went. His mother would usually chastise him for even being seen at Kelly's, since it was a place that was altogether unfit for a boy of his standings. Everything was different now. Everything was better. Well, almost everything…

Dillon saw Jason walking back and forth, carrying ornaments and putting them into the boxes where they once came from. It wasn't long before Dillon realized what was going on… "No!"

Jason turned his cold eyes onto Dillon, "What do you mean, 'no?'"

"Please… not the tree!"

The older man sighed and closed his eyes. He didn't want a fight, that was partly why he was so glad that Dillon hadn't come back from wherever he was the night before. He could get everything done and there wouldn't be any hassle. It was a fools dream, apparently. "Dillon… we've been over this…"

"But… but…"

"I agreed to keep the tree until New Years Day. What's the date today?"

"January first…"

"Also known as?"

Dillon grumbles, "New Years Day…"

"I've kept my end of the bargain." Jason was hiding it well, as he always did, but a part of him, a small part, was sad to see the tree go. He would keep the short but sweet memories of decorating the tree with Courtney in his heart forever. Hopefully it would be a yearly tradition. "Now its time to keep yours…"

"But I don't want to!"

"Dillon…"

The teenager realized that his day was not going to go over very well. He had woken up in the Quartermaine mansion, the one place that he never wanted to be at any point in his life, and now, when he returned home, he was seeing a piece of his happiness being stripped down to nothing more than the pine needles, and there wasn't anything that he could do about it… or was there?

Courtney walked down the stairs, not having heard the commotion but wanting something to drink. She had slept comfortably in the arms of her husband after spending a magical night with him. It was the perfect way to start the year. "What's going on in here?"

"Courtney!" Dillon saw the one chance that he had at getting his wishes granted. Courtney, after all, was Jason's wife, therefore, she had leverage that Dillon could never hope to keep himself. "Jason's trying to crush my dreams!"

"I bought you a video camera for Christmas, how am I crushing your dreams?" The Dillon meter was going from one extreme to the other, quickly coming up on just being plain annoying. Jason respected Dillon's passion for things, since it seemed like Dillon was able to care about things in ways that Jason could never hope to again, but there were times when that passion could become overbearing.

"The tree…" he had to struggle for a reason, and he had to make it a good one, "it inspires me… yeah, that's it!"

"You're taking the tree down?" Courtney asked Jason.

"See?" Dillon also looked at Jason. "She doesn't want it to come down either…"

"He's right, I don't…"

"Told you."

"But," she continued, "I know that we can't have a Christmas tree here the whole year, the tree will be dead in a few days anyway, and a tree like this doesn't deserve to suffer. Besides, Jason said that it was going to go outside on the first, and today is the first. If we had an agreement with Jason, Dillon, we have to honor it."

"Looks like your plan didn't work," Jason continued to walk back and forth from the tree, getting the delicate ornaments off first before he would just toss all the tinsel inside the garbage.

"Don't think you get off that easy, Jason." Courtney finished walking down the stairs. "You could have asked if we wanted to help, you know? We put this tree up, we can put it down as a family…"

"I didn't want to wake you up, and Dillon wasn't here…"

It dawned on Courtney that her husband had a point. Dillon didn't come in at all. Courtney may have been a little too tipsy to realize it at the time, but her memory, however objective it may have been, ended up being true. Instantly the motherly aspect of Courtney Morgan kicked in. "Dillon, where were you? I know it was New Years Eve, but I expected you to come home sometime…"

With great regret in his voice, Dillon told them where he was. "I was at the mansion…"

"You stayed there?" Jason was amazed at Dillon's excuse.

"I didn't have a choice," the teenager sat down, looking over at the tree, it would be gone in a few minutes and he would be sad. "Georgie and I went to take Brook Lynn home because she was on the docks alone and then when we got there the snow ended up being so bad that we couldn't hope to make it back to town. So, Georgie and I were forced to campout at the mansion for the night."

"How was it?" Courtney knew how much Dillon hated being at the mansion now that he had finally been emancipated, but maybe it was a good visit. They were still his family, Jason's as well, and Courtney thought that they should always embrace the fact that they had that common bond with the Quartermaine's, at least to honor the spirit of Lila if nothing else.

"The usual. My mother wanted me to stay. She tried to manipulate me, made cracks at my girlfriend's expense… and has apparently decided to take up playing Jenga."

The two adults looked at one another before asking in mutual surprise, "Jenga?"

Dillon shrugged his shoulders, "Tracy Quartermaine has a few talents that she is a master at. One of them is building someone up and then breaking them down, just like the pile of Jenga blocks. She'd probably be really good at it."

The analogy worked for Courtney, but it wasn't very important. "Where's Georgie now?"

"I took her home once we were able to get the hell out of that place. I don't think she'll have many nightmares about it, but I could just be hoping for the best because I know how many nightmares I have about that place."

"It kept you safe," Courtney pointed out. "Your family didn't want to see you go out into the snow because they were afraid that something could happen to you. I'm not saying that they should have made your stay there so… problematic, but at least they cared enough to put your wellbeing in front of everything else, right?"

"I guess," he had to agree with that, however reluctantly he was to do it. "How was the party?"

Courtney smiled as she remembered everything that had gone on. From the little conversations to the dancing. The moments that she cherished from the night before would always bring her good warm feelings. "It was great."

"I'm just happy to get out of that suit."

Courtney slapped Jason on the arm, "You had a good time, admit it!"

The stoic enforcer lost his trademark blankness for a fleeting second. "I always have a good time with you, Courtney. Yesterday night was great, but that doesn't mean that I didn't hate being in that suit…"

"Maybe we should look into getting a custom suit made out of leather," Dillon suggested. "I mean, you love leather… so, it could work…" the silence that followed his statement gave him the hint that he needed. "Okay, fine, bad idea. Sorry, I'll shut up now."

"Are we in agreement with this whole tree situation?" Courtney asked.

"I'll do it," Dillon answered her. "But can I at least have a moment to say goodbye? She was such a good tree… so good to me."

"You have an unhealthy relationship with the tree…"

"The man who cherishes his leather jacket should not make cracks about someone else having strong emotional ties to an inanimate object," Dillon quickly countered. It was in jest. If Dillon had a jacket that was nearly as cool as Jason's he would probably go to sleep with it. Not that Jason went to sleep with it on. Maybe he did. Dillon could never really be too sure.

Dillon got up from the chair and made his way over to the tree. He looked at her, remembering everything that he went through to find her. His first Christmas in Port Charles without the stigma of being with the Quartermaine's. Maybe that was why he cared about the thing so much, because it was a symbol of him becoming his own person, away from the ever consuming shadow of everyone around him. He just wanted his first Christmas that was free to be perfect, and it was, but it couldn't last forever, Dillon knew that. He had a few reservations about the fact that things couldn't stay perfect forever, but he wasn't a little boy, he knew how the world worked. "You were good to me, Bessie…"

Jason's eyebrow went up, "You named the tree Bessie?"

"I couldn't think of anything else to name it…"

"Why not just call it the Christmas tree?"

"Because Bessie demanded that I give her a name…"

"Maybe they were right," Jason began, "maybe staying in the freezing snow as long as you did while you were looking for this tree managed to do something to your brain… mix the freezing cold weather with all the hair products you use and…"

Courtney giggled, "Jason, don't be mean."

"I wasn't being mean, I was trying to be funny…"

Courtney put her hand on his forehead, "Are you feeling okay?"

"What, I can't be funny?"

Courtney and Dillon answered at the same time, "No, not really." Jason had his moments, but the humor was usually unintentional. It didn't make it any less funny.

With the burden of getting rid of the tree heavy on his heart, Dillon knew that it was the choice that he needed to make. She had served her purpose, but it was time to let her go. He took one of the ornaments that he and Georgie had put on together and walked it over to the box. "The sooner we get this done the sooner we can vacuum the pine needles from the rug."

"You're doing that," Jason pointed out. "Bessie was your tree…"

"I don't remember that being part of the agreement."

"It was a clause in the contract," Courtney didn't want to vacuum the needles, she remembered doing it in Atlantic City. It wasn't fun. If she could avoid it, she would be happy. "Unspoken, but there."

Dillon glanced over at his two guardians, his family. "I feel like I've just been played…"

"Look at it this way, Dillon, you're not really a part of this family until you end up doing something that you don't really want to do. Think of this as your inauguration…" Courtney was just joking with the boy, but she did think of him as a member of her family.

The three members of the Morgan household continued to undress Bessie. Dillon kept his comments about how much he wanted to keep her around just for a little while longer to a minimum. They even ended up throwing tinsel at one another. Bessie seemed to bring them together both with her arrival and her departure. Maybe they should have named the tree Lila…


	108. Moper

Kelly's, Afternoon-

Dillon waited patiently at one of the tables in the restaurant. Hours had passed since he had to say goodbye to Bessie, but the pain was still there. He still wanted to have just one more day with her. Maybe he could hide her somewhere, take her away from the place that they dumped her and keep her a secret from everyone, that way nobody would ever be able to steal her away again. The idea showed promise, but he didn't know where he could possibly hope to hide a Christmas tree of that size. Fate was against Dillon Quartermaine, he was certain of that fact.

"You look like someone just kicked your puppy…"

"I never had a puppy."

"Neither did I, but that doesn't mean I would look happy if someone kicked my puppy." Damian sat down across from his younger friend. He knew full well what would happen in a few months. Dillon was going to graduate from high school and, unlike Damian, he wasn't going to stay around the hometown for a few years. Dillon wanted to get the hell away from Port Charles, and while Damian certainly couldn't blame him for having such feelings the young man also couldn't help but worry about losing one of the only real friends that he ever had. The people at med school weren't exactly chum material.

"Thanks for coming…"

"You wanted me to come over and I came, I don't know why you couldn't have just asked me to go over to the penthouse. It's a shorter walk."

"I wasn't there when I called you."

"Dillon… what's wrong?"

The younger man sighed, "Jason took my tree away…"

There was nothing at first. No sound came from Damian's mouth. He just sat there, stunned. Not stunned by the fact that Jason had decided to take the tree out, stunned because Dillon was taking it so hard. A second later and he couldn't help it, he started to chuckle softly.

"What's so funny?"

"You're hurt because Uncle Jason got rid of your Christmas tree?"

"I loved Bessie!"

"You named the tree Bessie?"

"You named the piano at your grandparents' house!" It was one of the stories that Damian had told Dillon of his time in Los Angeles. Fuel to the fire for Dillon at that moment. Why did everyone think that it was so weird that he named the tree?

"I was like nine years old, I wasn't in my late teens…"

"She was good to me."

"You'll get another tree next year," Damian remarked, trying to sound sympathetic, and quite possibly failing miserably. "But you're going to do it by yourself, or at least not with me. I'm not spending another two hours of my life in freezing weather while you go and look for Bessie Junior."

"What if I'm not even here for the next Christmas?" It hadn't really dawned upon Dillon until that moment. He wanted to get out of Port Charles, even though there were things that he loved about the town. But if he left, would he even come back? Dillon wasn't sure that he would.

"Then you really are going by yourself…"

"Come on, I'm being serious here."

"What do you want me to say, Dillon? If you choose to stay away from this place for the rest of your life then that is your choice and nobody can make it but you. I'm not going to try and talk you out of going and doing what you want to do, I'm not even going to try and convince you that you should stick around just a little while longer. I always regretted waiting as long as I did to come here… both to start school and to find my family, but I made that choice because the people I cared about at the time didn't want to see me go."

"I never really gave it much thought, you know?"

"You're a high school senior, you never give anything much thought. You'll make the choice that you think is right."

"Hey you two," Elizabeth walked up, dressed in her uniform and holding the pad of paper that she would use to take their orders. "Everything going good here?"

"Dillon's going through post-Christmas tree departure depression…"

"Announce it to the world, why don't you!"

Elizabeth wasn't sure what Damian meant by the phrase, and she wasn't entirely certain if she wanted to know, but she decided that she could play along for a little while. "What's wrong, Dillon?"

"Jason took my tree away…"

"You managed to get a tree inside of Jason's place for Christmas?" Elizabeth hadn't really heard much about the great story that came with tree hunting and battling Jason Morgan, king of the no celebration. "That's impressive. When Jason and I were together… well, I didn't end up winning that battle, I can tell you that much."

"We still have ours," Damian wasn't sure when Sonny would take the tree away, he didn't really care, either. "You can come and look at it, you can even give it a hug."

"Now you're just mocking me."

"I've been mocking you since you got the damned thing," Damian quickly countered. "Are you going to order something?"

"Cheeseburger and fries…"

"What about you, Damian?"

"Just a salad." He wasn't very hungry, and despite the fact that he could buy enough food for a good section of the town and not bat an eyelash, Damian wasn't the type of person who would buy a bunch of food and then not eat it. "Italian dressing…"

"Call me if you need anything else."

"Hey, Elizabeth," Damian spoke to her as she began to walk away, "Did Uncle Ric leave yet?"

She blushed, remembering how he saw them. "He's been gone for a few hours, why?"

"Just making sure."

Dillon saw the grin that was on Damian's face. "What was that about?"

"Inside joke."

Dillon was still wondering what exactly made the comment so amusing to his friend when he heard the door open. The young man looked over and saw his niece. "Hey, Brook!"

Brook Lynn once again had to find a way to get out of the mansion. They weren't fighting anymore, but they were smothering her with their attempts at being caring parents. She wasn't sure which she hated more, but she was banking on the latter. They didn't care enough to do those things when she was growing up and now they just expected her to be okay with them trying to make up for lost time?

"Why don't you come sit with us?" Dillon asked, being as good of an uncle as he possibly could. He didn't have a lot of training. It wasn't like Alan was the best uncle to him in the world, but he did like Alan.

"Is that okay with you?" Brook asked Damian not wanting to impose on him.

"You know it is," he replied, "there's plenty of room for the three of us right here, unless you just came to grab something to go… but you can hang around all you want, neither of us mind the company."

Brook smiled as she sat down in one of the empty chairs. Knowing how Dillon's night went, she instead focused on the other man, the one that she wasn't related to, "How'd your New Years Eve go?"

"I got stuck in New York City overnight…"

Dillon had to keep himself from spitting out the contents of his soda when he heard Damian's answer. "You and Maxie got stuck overnight in New York City? On New Years Eve?"

"There was too much snow for the pilot to even think about taking off. Believe me, I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could, but we had to go and look for a room. We found one in one of the most expensive hotels… and note that I said one."

"Mac must have been throwing a fit."

Damian shook his head, "Mac doesn't know that we only had one room, but he doesn't blame me for what happened, thankfully."

Brook already had ideas of what happened when they found themselves stuck in New York City alone in a hotel room all to themselves. It wasn't exactly the best thought that she could have had, and she obviously didn't know Damian that well if she was assuming that he would do something like that. "Did you have fun?"

"Not really, no…"

"How could you not have fun in New York?" Dillon asked. "Man, when I think about everything that I would do if I got stuck there. So many movie theaters, so little time."

"I'll let you go instead of me next time and every subsequent time, how's that?"

"Deal!" Dillon was going to hold Damian to that agreement. If it meant free trips to the city why wouldn't he take the offer?

"I'm with you, Damian," Brook chimed in, giving her opinion, not knowing if they gave much weight to it and not caring either way. "I mean, I might be named after one of the parts of New York, but I don't really like it that much. The people there are so rude and self-centered."

"Are you sure you two are related?"

"We find the situation hard to believe at times, too," Dillon agreed. "I mean, I can't sing… at all… and Brook…"

"Dillon!" Brook cut in before he could say anything else.

"What?" Dillon remained oblivious to the fact that his niece might not have wanted her talents displayed for all the world to see. "Brook, you have an awesome voice, really, if I had a voice like that I would want people to know. Okay, I wouldn't because I'm a guy and guys shouldn't be able to hit the notes that you can, but if I had the male equivalent…"

"Would you shut up!"

"I didn't know you could sing, Brook."

"She's really good! She's going to be famous and then she's going to forget all about her Uncle Dillon, unless he becomes a great movie director, then she'll use him to advance her acting career…"

"Didn't I ask you to shut up?"

"You didn't ask," Dillon said, "you sort of demanded."

"And it didn't work, did it?"

"Dillon, if Brook doesn't want people to know about her singing ability… well, I can understand it. I didn't let people know about my piano playing skills, limited though they might be…"

Brook shook her head, "I've heard you play before, remember? You're good."

"You're just trying to make me feel better. But thank you for that. I know what you're feeling, Brook, at least I think I am. You don't want people to know because you don't want them to shower praise on you. You don't want to be the center of attention because you feel like something is wrong when you are."

"How did you…"

He smiled, "I went through the same thing when I started getting decent at the piano. People who would never pay attention to me before would want me to play a song for them and then they would go back to ignoring me until they needed me again. I hated that, I hated feeling like I was one of those people that you pay on the corner of the street to do something."

Dillon, despite lacking musical talent in the least, could relate to the plight of both his friend and his niece. He touched Brook's arm as softly as he could, "I'm sorry that I was trying to show you off. I do think that you have a wonderful voice, but if you don't want people to know…"

"It's cool, just don't do it again." Brook wasn't sure why, but she and Damian had more in common than either of them had ever really realized. Why was he with someone who appeared to have almost nothing in common with him? Why was he with Maxie?


	109. Windows To The Soul

Scorpio Household-

There were momentous of a person's childhood, of their upbringing, that were almost always in a person's room. If it was just an old picture of the person as a child, a cherished stuffed animal, or something else, it was rare that a person didn't have something that gave even the slightest bit of a hint as to who they once were. Most kept it as a reminder of better times, when everything seemed so black and white, when people believed that mommy and daddy could solve every problem and that everything would always be okay. It might not have been the best thing to do, since reminders of such times of ignorance and blindness were often looked back on a little bit of scorn, but one couldn't deny that it was a happier time.

Maxie Jones was one of those people. She had so many things in her room that just screamed of her childhood. There were awards that she got from school during that brief period of time when she was actually a good student, or stuffed toys that she was given while she was in the hospital, when they thought she was going to die. She even had a few old albums from bands that she never listened to anymore hidden under her bed, a guilty pleasure that she just couldn't stand to get rid of. It wasn't her fault, Jordan Knight looked like such a cutie when she was a little girl.

But the reminders of her past were not all pleasant. There were pictures of her with B.J. that were clearly displayed on her mirror. Sometimes she would look at them and smile as she remembered the cousin that had been her best friend. Other times she would look at them and cry, missing the person that had to die so that she could live, worrying about how well she was doing at honoring the memory and the heart of someone that everyone loved.

Maxie's room was a reflection of her personality. The little girl that she was once upon a time, and the woman that she had since become. It hadn't changed much in a few years, but one could see the framed picture that she had with her boyfriend by her bedside. The last thing she looked at during most nights was that picture, and every night she would hope that she wouldn't wake up in the morning with him being gone, taken away because of the life that he had.

Maxie was looking at that very picture from her bed as she thought about what had happened. He didn't want to think that anything had changed, but Maxie knew that everything had changed. Not because of the fact that she slept with him, or because they took a shower together, but because she finally saw what had happened to him. She could see the damage that the life that he was now a part of had done to his mind. If anyone was strong enough to weather the storms that were brewing inside the mind it was him, but she couldn't help but remember the horror that was in his eyes. He hated what he had to do, and he might not have truly accepted the fact that it was necessary. "Just be all right…" she whispered as she touched the picture.

Georgie had poked her head in from the hallway. She hadn't seen much of her sister since they both got home, and that was something that she was looking to stop. "Who are you talking to?"

Maxie was surprised by the voice that came from her door. "Don't you know how to knock?"

"Maxie…"

"Sorry," she didn't mean to snap at her little sister. They had plenty of times where they were mad at each other, but she wasn't going through one of those times. She knew the way she sounded, the infliction in her voice, was bordering on hostile. "You just startled me."

"I should have knocked, but the door was open just a little…"

"You're welcome in my room whenever you want, as long as I'm here. You know how much I hate it when you're snooping around my room while I'm out."

"I haven't done that in years…"

"Georgie…"

"I'm serious!" Georgie had long since given up the snooping part of her life. She didn't need to do it anymore. She had Dillon and that took up as much of her free time as she would let it, not to mention the fact that Maxie and Georgie's relationship had gotten so much stronger. They were close, they would come to each other when it was needed, but rarely did they ever actually talk. It was because they had such different opinions on Kyle, he had caused a rift in their relationship that took some time to heal, but it had healed and he wouldn't do something like that again.

"All right, I believe you."

"So who were you talking to?"

"Nobody. You know, just talking to myself. Hoping that I can change something that might not be in my power to change."

"Is everything all right?" Georgie walked into the room and took a seat next to her sister. "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"Not really, but it means so much to me that you did ask."

"This is about him, isn't it?" Georgie knew that her sister was talking to the picture of her and her boyfriend. She knew that Maxie was thinking about Damian, her mind was almost always on Damian, but it wasn't like Georgie's mind with Dillon. Georgie didn't have to worry about Dillon ending up dead because of who he was nearly as frequently as Maxie did. Even with Dillon's new association with the Morgan/Corinthos families he still wasn't at that much risk. Damian had a lot more clout when it came to ransom and the like. Georgie hated that she was thinking about it, but she couldn't help it.

"He worries me."

"Why?"

"Because sometimes I know that he's trying to keep me out of his life, and I don't want that. I want to be a part of that life, Georgie. I know what could go on, I know the danger that I'm in because of him, but I also know that he'd never put me in danger on purpose. It's like he's being punished just for being who he is and people shouldn't be punished for something like that."

"Sometimes they can't help it, Maxie. Think about it, people can be killers, and you…"

"He's not a killer! Not in cold blood…"

"I know that, but I'm just saying that every person ends up having something bad that comes with being themselves. Sometimes it is something that isn't that important, like with me. I just get called a geek at school because I am, but that's the person who I am, and sometimes it's a lot worse… like with him."

"I've never seen him like he was this morning…"

"This morning? You were with him in the morning?"

"Dad didn't tell you?" Maxie was almost certain that the word of her being alone with the mob prince would have spread like wildfire through the small Scorpio home. Mac was actually staying silent about it, and for that she was grateful.

"I haven't really talked to dad…"

"We were stuck in New York last night. We had to get a hotel room. Dad doesn't know it… but we ended up sharing a room together."

"Maxie!"

"We couldn't help it, Georgie. He wanted to get two rooms, he really did, but they only had one left. It was hard enough to get a room on New Years Eve in that city, we had tried so many other places and come up with nothing that we were very lucky to find the room when we did…"

"So…"

"So what?"

"What do you mean so what?" Georgie smiled. "You were alone, in another city, in a hotel room, on New Years Eve… at night… do I really need to keep on going with this?"

"We didn't have sex."

"Oh," the smile faded. "Well, at least he was respectful enough…"

"He didn't want to have sex with me…"

"Now you're just pulling my leg." A boy, not wanting to have sex? Such things went against the very nature of the gender. Georgie realized that she was stereotyping the man, but it was so hard not to.

"No, I'm not," Maxie shook her head. "He didn't even want to sleep with me last night, Georgie."

"Why not?"

"Because he didn't want me to think that something was going to happen that he wasn't ready to do. If he asked me to have sex with him last night you know I would have… but it would have felt right. I love him, Georgie. I want to be with him."

"I know you do."

"And I know he wants to be with me… at least I think I do. At first I was really hurt by the fact that he decided he didn't want to sleep with me. I knew that he wasn't ready to have sex with me and I even accepted that, but when he said he would sleep on the couch I thought he was rejecting me…"

"Maxie, he'd be stupid to reject you."

"He just didn't want to hurt me. He never does. I don't know why, but it's like he does everything with kids' gloves on and is afraid of doing something that could break me… I'm not a porcelain doll."

"You're pretty like one. And you have a few." She pointed to the few that were in the room, "See?"

"We're okay, though. We talked about it. I told him that when he was ready I would be ready…"

"Dillon and I had the same conversation yesterday… its like we're still connected on that level, except that I'm the one who isn't ready in my relationship and he's the one who isn't ready in yours. Maybe… maybe there's something wrong with him…"

"Georgie!"

"I'm just trying to be honest with you, Maxie," Georgie gave her sister's hand a sympathetic pat. "He's twenty-one years old… why wouldn't he want to be with you in that way?"

"He wants to wait… I respect that, but sometimes it's hard."

"You managed to get one of the only guys in the world who wants to wait… you should consider yourself lucky."

"I do."

"So why are you worried about him then? If you're not worried about him not wanting to have sex…"

"He had a bad dream and woke up. It was because of what happened with Alcazar…"

"He did that to save his dad and himself."

"We all know that, even Damian does, but that doesn't change the fact that he thought about it. I think he dreams about it all the time. He never told me… but this morning I saw it. You should have seen him, Georgie. He was shaking and sweating and you could see that he was really afraid of what was going on. He needed me like he's never needed me before."

"You were there for him, weren't you?"

"I did everything that I could, I held him while we were in the shower, I told him that everything was going to be all right. I don't know if he believed me or not, but I hope he did."

"Wait, you were in the shower with him?"

"He said he needed me. I looked into his eyes and I knew that he really did. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing, Georgie. I couldn't." Maybe that was why she spent so much time looking at the picture. It made her feel like she was doing something, even if it was just passing her love over to him. Maxie could only hope that it was enough.


	110. Is He Ready?

General Hospital, Nurses Station-

Normally he would be there looking for Maxie, waiting for her to get off of a shift so that the two of them could have some alone time, but he wasn't there for that. He needed to tell Bobbie about Durant. He wasn't ready when he got back into town, but he had the time that he needed to prepare himself. Damian wasn't sure how she would take it. Would she be happy? Would she be sad? There was only one way to find out.

"Maxie's not here right now…"

He knew the voice belong to Alan Quartermaine. They hadn't really talked all that much, but it was hard not to know who Alan was, especially if one wanted to be a doctor in Port Charles. "I'm actually not here for Maxie today, Dr. Quartermaine, but thank you anyway…"

"Are you getting nervous?"

"Yes, actually…"

Alan smiled and laughed. "We all did when we started out, Damian, and most of us were a few years older than you. You should be very happy about the chances that you are being given. I had to wait until I was much older to even become an intern. You're barely old enough to drink."

"Believe me, I know just how lucky I am with everything that has happened to me and around me. I'm so thankful to both you and your wife for taking a chance on me, I know that there are probably reasons why you wouldn't want to do it…"

"Just because your father and I don't get along doesn't mean I necessarily place the same stigma on you. Believe me, I know just how far a son can be from his father." Alan had experience in that field both as a son and as a father. He was a lot different from Edward and he didn't even want to think about how different his own sons were from him, realizing those things made his heart hurt too much.

"It's more than that… like you said, I'm young, I don't have the extra years of medical school that the other interns are going to have, but you're doing this for me…"

"Not many of the interns who have all the training that I do would do what you did. Damian, you don't understand just how impressive you are to people like me. Not only because of your grades, which as you know are very commendable, but because of what you did at the diner."

"Sometimes I wish I didn't do that…"

"You don't really mean that, do you? A man lived because of your actions. That's what we're supposed to do as doctors. But you didn't freeze, and that is why you're being given the chance that we're giving you. Most people would actually stand there like time was standing still and just look. You didn't. You acted."

"How can you say that I won't freeze when I'm in a uniform? When I'm actually expected to know what is going on, when I'm supposed to know how to fix a person… what if I can't?"

"Then you'll learn the first lesson of being a doctor: sometimes we can't help everyone." Alan knew how much they all hated that lesion. He was one of the many that wished beyond all possible reason that they could just blink their eyes and have all the answers, all the medicine, all the cures.

"You might be able to do something that I can't. That's what I'm afraid of."

"I can't do much anymore," Alan remarked. "I'm just the chief of staff. Monica will be the one who you will usually end up taking orders from. Sometimes she can be a little temperamental, but she's one of the smartest and best doctors in the country. People would love to have her as a mentor."

"I know that, and I'm thankful…"

"You just need to stop worrying about everything that might happen, Damian, because you'll just end up worrying yourself to death with the possibilities and that will take your effectiveness as a doctor down. Nobody deserves to have their career taken apart before it can even start."

"I'll remember that." The truth was that worrying about what could happen to him when he started being an intern was the farthest thing from his mind. He wasn't worried about his abilities, although they would always be called into question in the dark corner of his mind.

"You might want to rest up while you still have the chance… you start in just a few days, and when that happens… well… I'm sure you know what you're expected to do as an intern."

"72 hour shifts?"

"Amongst other things…"

"I'll take your advice into consideration." There was almost no way that he could ever actually get some rest. In his life? Those things were little more than dreams that he wished would be true. There was almost always something keeping him up.

"That's all I can ever ask, isn't it?"

"I'm sure anybody who got advice from you would actually try and take it."

"You obviously don't know Jason as well as you might think…"

"He does take your advice into consideration. Both you and Monica. Uncle Jason…"

"I still can't believe you call him that."

"It took us both a little longer than usual to get used to it. But he's family, and that means more to me than almost anything else in the world. Anyway, he just doesn't show it, but that doesn't mean that he just ignores your advice…"

"I told him to stop being with Sonny…"

"Yeah, you told him," Damian noted. "And, believe me, I learned the hard way that when it comes to Jason Morgan… telling him to do something is not the way to go."

"He was just so different…"

"I'm sorry that you lost him. I wish I could do something to help…" it wasn't an empty wish, but would he make the sacrifice? If he could help Jason, which he knew was impossible, but hypothetically speaking if he could, would he? Bringing back Jason Quartermaine could possibly mean ending the relationships that Jason had established with everyone in his own family, most specifically Courtney and Michael. The Quartmaine's deserved the chance to have Jason back, but did his family deserve to have him taken away?

"We all wish that there was a way to make everything better," Alan hid his sorrow as well as he could. Sometimes he was good at it, when it came to Jason it was always a little harder. "I should get back to my office. Remember what I said…"

"I will, and thank you again for everything."

Bobbie was working, just as Damian had guessed. She needed to get her mind off of everything that was going on around her, which included sending her niece and step-grandson into New York to do her job for her. When she walked up to the nurses' station she saw him standing there. "Damian…"

"Just the woman I was looking for…"

Bobbie bit her lip, "You found him, didn't you?"

"I found him…"

"And?"

"Can you take a break?"

"I don't need a break."

"Well can we at least go sit on the couches?" He didn't want to tell her the news standing up. He wasn't sure how she was going to take it. Bobbie wanted Carly's father to be a good man, but he really wasn't.

"You can just tell me right here."

Reluctantly he realized that there was no way he was going to get Bobbie to take a load off of her feet while he gave her the news, "John Durant is a district attorney in New York City now, Bobbie…"

"The man that once went and had sex in whore houses… well, I guess they don't have very many requirements for people to be district attorneys these days." Bobbie shouldn't have thrown stones, she was in a position of power despite her past. But it was true. Ric, Scott, and now Durant… all district attorneys.

"I don't know if he has a family or not…"

"You didn't tell him about Carly, did you?"

"Of course not… but, Bobbie, I think you were right. I'm almost certain that he is her father. I can see bits and pieces of her in his face. It was eerie…"

"You're not going to tell her, are you?"

"He knows who I am, Bobbie. I didn't want to even have him see me, but he did. And when he did… well, he started saying that he was going to throw me in jail because I was trying to do the work of my father and get rid of him…"

"He always was a hothead…"

"The point is that if Carly finds out who her father is she's still going to want to make contact with him, and then he'll know that she's my dad's wife. He wants to bring my father down, Bobbie… not that it's not very different from a bunch of other people around the world, but still…"

"He didn't threaten you, did he?"

"Everyone threatens me, it comes with being a Corinthos."

"Be serious for a second, would you?"

"He couldn't throw me in jail, Bobbie," Damian leaned against the desk. "I didn't do anything wrong. But… I don't know… I just feel worried about it. Like I said, he knows who I am… but why would he?"

"Because of your father."

"Exactly… so maybe he has plans that are going to bring him here. He said something about how my dad made the first move…"

"Do you really think he's coming here?"

"I don't know."

"He can't!" Bobbie replied in a panic. "If John comes to Port Charles he'll find Carly and he'll find out everything. We can't let that happen!"

"Calm down, Bobbie," Damian reached over and put his hand over hers, "We don't know anything for certain yet, everything I'm saying is just a possibility. And we can keep him away from Carly even if he does come…"

"How?"

"I don't know, we'll think of something. We don't have much of a choice in the matter, do we?"

"I wish I didn't send you… I wish I never found out about him."

"Bobbie, you did the right thing. You were looking out for the interests of your family, and now that we're almost sure of who her father is we can find a way to get him to give us blood or something else in case she needs it or one of the kids does. He doesn't ever have to know about Carly, but since we know about him we have the upper hand."

"You could have gotten into trouble just for doing this for me… thank you."

"You took a chance on me when nobody else wanted to believe that I was actually here just because I wanted to connect with my father. I have a debt to you that I'm never going to be able to repay, but I can at least take small steps at it. Don't worry, Bobbie, we'll find a way to make it work."

Bobbie gave him her best smile, but deep down she knew that there were still too many things that could have gone wrong. She wasn't at ease. She probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night.


	111. A Different Side

Journeylove- Thanks for the praise, it always makes me feel better. I just wish that more people reviewed… Shadows had so many more reviews, even part two, which has less than half the chapters of this story, had more. I miss excess amounts of reviews, it makes me feel special. Anyway, onto your questions… at this point in time I have no plans to let Sonny know about Kristina, he just found out he has an adult son, well, it's still fresh in his mind, so yeah. He might, and I stress might, find out what Carly did, but it certainly won't happen within Woe, it'll be during some other part, assuming I do more than three. The next story will, I hope, be faster paced than this one and more multi-dimensional instead of just focusing on Damian near-completely. Brook is up to her regular shenanigans, you'll see.

Story-

Park-

Dillon didn't really want to go back to the penthouse, and, as much as he loved Georgie he was almost certain that she wanted a break just to sleep without having to worry about his mother pouncing on her from above and trying to suck out her blood. Tracy wasn't a vampire, of course, but she had more than a few habits that would make her out to be something of a bloodsucker. She certainly sucked most of the life from Dillon over the past few years. He wouldn't lie, he loved his mother. She was his mom, he wouldn't be able to turn his back on her completely, no matter how much he tried to tell himself that he could just walk away.

It was odd being away from her at first, but it was freeing now. Dillon still couldn't get rid of the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Tracy was following him. She could be just behind his shoulder in the bushes. Well, not in the bushes, Tracy would never allow herself to get dirty, she was too proud for that.

Dillon heard footsteps through the bushes at that moment. It was oddly timed. He felt the hair on his arms start to stand up as he thought about who it could be. Curious, as most teenage boys were, Dillon knew that he needed to find out who was making the sound and if it was her he would tell her to leave him alone.

Dillon walked around the corner and saw a sight that he never thought he would see. Someone was in the bushes, but it wasn't Tracy Quartermaine, it was Sonny Corinthos. Dillon stood there, stunned at the fact that the high and mighty crime lord was doing something so… normal… as looking through the bushes.

"Damned ball…"

"Sonny?"

Sonny stopped looking through the bushes to look up and see who was talking to him. "Dillon, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to take a walk… clear my head."

Sonny looked at Dillon, as if he was examining the boy. Dillon was his son's best friend, and Sonny had seen just how close they were. They would lean on each other in ways that Damian would never lean on him. Sonny respected that. It was good that he had a friend, and it was good that he had a friend that was as good a friend as Dillon. Normally Sonny wouldn't have been very welcome of a relationship being established with a Quartermaine, but Dillon was a lot like Jason, and Sonny couldn't find anything wrong with Jason. But there was one thing that always bugged Sonny about Dillon: the fact that he didn't know much about him. The boy seemed to avoid spending much time with Damian unless they were away from the penthouse. "Anything I can help with?"

Dillon didn't know how Sonny could help him with his problems. Actually, Dillon did know how Sonny could help him with his problems, but as big a problem as Tracy was in his life Dillon didn't want her dead. "No… but, is there a reason why you're looking through the bushes?" He silently added 'and can you tell me that reason?' Sonny was just like Jason, and Jason would always say that there were things that Dillon just didn't need to know.

"Michael lost his ball in the bushes. Or, rather, I didn't catch the ball when it came to me…"

"You were playing catch with Michael?"

"Is that odd?"

Dillon couldn't give Sonny the straight answer that was in his head. Yes, it was very odd that the man was playing catch with his child. It was odd that Sonny did anything that was so banal. "No… dad's play catch with their sons all the time… I think."

"I can't do it as often as I would like," Sonny's job didn't give him all the time in the world for his children. He would always make time for them, but he was never sure if it was enough. That was one of the only things that Sonny didn't like about his job, the sacrifices that he had to make when it came to spending time with his sons. "But whenever we get the chance…"

"You need some help?"

Sonny smiled, "Sure, another pair of eyes couldn't hurt."

Dillon realized that he was seeing a part of Sonny that he didn't even know existed. The part that made him a lot less frightening. Dillon questioned the safety of playing catch in the snow, with the ice making slipping quite probable, but Sonny would never put any of his children in danger, Dillon knew that. He pushed through the bushes to help Sonny just as he offered.

"Found it…"

"I guess you didn't need me then, did you?"

Sonny wiped the ball clean of the snow that had been stuck on it, as well as the leaves and branches. "It was nice of you to offer, Dillon. That's all we can ever ask of people. As long as they try and help that shows what type of person they are."

"I guess…"

"Daddy!" Michael came running up, "Did you find the ball?"

Sonny gave the ball a gentle toss, which Michael caught in his glove. "That answer your question, buddy?"

"I knew you could find it!"

"Don't throw it so hard next time," Sonny replied. "I'm not all that young anymore, I can't move like I could when I was your brother's age."

"Dillon?" Michael realized that the boy was there. "Why are you here?"

"Just passing through." Although they were cousins by blood, Dillon knew that Michael would be little more than a distant acquaintance to him. He didn't mind. Michael was in his own little world, just like most children his age.

"You know what, buddy… I think you should get back to the house. Your mom didn't want you outside that long… you're going back to school soon and we would hate for you to get sick." Carly had become someone who was very germophobic since Morgan's sickness, and Sonny couldn't blame her. "Have Max walk you home, okay?"

"But I want to play outside some more!"

"Michael…"

Michael lowered his head, saddened by the fact that his fun was going to end so soon. "Oh, all right."

Dillon watched Michael walk away. "I don't think he realizes that it hurts you probably more than it hurts him…"

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't want to stop doing this, Sonny. No kid does. No kid wants to stop spending time with their father, but it happens. I think you realize it better than Michael does, though… realize that every time you send him back is a time that you'll never get back to yourself."

"I do realize that."

"See? He won't ever know how much it hurts you deep down."

"As much as I want to see him grow up into a strong and confident man I really just want him to stay a little boy… he's so innocent, so needy. Eventually he'll find out that there are things that he needs to solve on his own, but I'm afraid that he won't know how to handle it."

"You'll still be there for him…"

Sonny shook his head, "I can never be too sure of that. I mean, nobody knows for certain if they're going to be there in the morning, but me…"

"Even if you're gone, Sonny, you'll still be a part of his life. At least he knows that you love him." Dillon wasn't sure if Paul loved him. The man had made no efforts to do anything related to even contacting him. A part of Dillon hated his father, the same part of Dillon that could never hate his mother. At least she was there… sometimes.

"It hurts when I do these things with Michael, and when I'll do them with Morgan, because I know that I should have done them before…"

"With Damian?"

"Yeah."

"He wouldn't play catch anyway," Dillon said, trying to make Sonny feel better. "He hates sports."

"I got that."

"It's different with you and Damian, though, Sonny, believe me. He knows that you didn't know about him. He doesn't hold it against you."

"He's told me that, but it doesn't mean that I don't hold it against myself. I didn't see my son for the first twenty-one years of his life, Dillon. I didn't have a moment with him, ever."

"You're making up for it."

"Am I? Or am I just trying to make it seem like I am?"

"He cares about you."

"He cares about a lot of people, like you and Bobbie."

"What I mean is that he'll never think about what you didn't do, what you couldn't control. He's not the kind of person who will come up to you one day and start yelling about how you failed him when he was growing up. He's not like me…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that…" Dillon shook his head. "You know, when I think about what I want to do when I meet my father most of the time I think about just hugging him and trying to get a good relationship going with him, much like you did with Damian, but there are other times when I see myself screaming at him and trying to make him feel incredibly guilty for what happened, for leaving me with my mother, for never being there for me when I really needed him. I don't want to be that kind of person, but I really can't help it. I have so much rage built up inside of me…"

"You have a right to be angry."

"I know I do."

"But that doesn't mean that you should let it consume you. Trust me, I know what could happen. My father and I won't ever have a good relationship because of what I thought about him. There's nothing that I can do to fix that, and I really don't want to because deep down I know that it would just be a lie. Your father… I don't know what kind of person he is, but I'm sure that he would be honored to be your father."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because he can see just how strong and independent you are. He spent enough time with Tracy to conceive you, Dillon. That alone has to be enough time to realize just how much of a witch she is… no offense."

"You didn't use more colorful language, you're showing restraint, I like that."

"So, if your father ever does meet you, and I'm almost positive that there will be a time when it does happen because no man can actually think about having a child and never once wanting to see them, even if the child doesn't know, I'm sure that he'll look at you, see how good of a kid you are, and he'll be proud."

"You really think so, you're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Damian thinks that you're one of the best people that he's ever met, he's told me so. I trust my son's judgment, he's a good judge of people."

"Yeah… he is…"

"I should get back to the house myself. Carly doesn't want me getting sick either." Sonny started to walk away, but stopped and turned around, "So tell me, am I less scary now?"

Dillon's eyes went wide… "Sonny…"

"Don't worry, I don't hold it against you for thinking that of me. Everyone has their opinions."

Dillon knew that those opinions were wrong. Sonny was a good man. He had just seen it with his own two eyes, he knew now that it was a fact.


	112. You Know What It's Like

Journeylove- I suppose Sonny and Dillon have quite a few similarities, I never really thought of it like that. I just wrote scene because throughout both stories Dillon's placed himself at a distance from Sonny, and while it wasn't really expressed it was still there. As for Brook, she'll show up in a few chapters again. Two in a row, in fact.

Story-

General Hospital-

Carly had always hated the elevators in the hospital. She felt that they were too slow for her when she needed to be in a rush, which was quite frequently. Now wasn't a time for her to just wait around in the elevator as the stupid blinking light went from floor to floor. Her resolution was to find her father, but she knew deep down she couldn't do it without her mother's help. She was going to keep on bugging Bobbie until her mother gave her the information that was needed. If that took a whole year, then so be it. Bobbie was stubborn, but Carly was the queen of being stubborn. People thought that she was a mule, sometimes she wasn't going to disagree with them.

"Finally!" She exclaimed as the doors opened with their familiar sound. She was looking down at the floor, ready to take on the world, but instead she found herself halted by bumping into someone else. "Why don't you watch where you're going…"

"Sorry…"

She recognized that voice. Her eyes looked up and saw him standing there. Her stepson, "Damian…" Carly quickly realized that she sounded like a huge bitch, which was something that she was good for, well known for. It was also something that she had done to Damian more times than he deserved. She wanted to stop doing that. She wanted to welcome him into her life. It took a lot for a person to become worthy of her attentions, but Damian had earned that right.

"Carly."

"I'm sorry," she walked away from him. "I'm just in a hurry…"

"Is something wrong? Did Morgan get sick again?" Did Bobbie know? If she knew, why didn't she tell him?

"No, Morgan's fine. He's with Courtney and Jason right now." She had once more dumped her child on her best friends, but she couldn't trust anyone with her children more than she trusted the two of them.

"Are you hurt? Do you want me to look at you… see if you're all right?"

"You can't look at me when you become a doctor. You're family."

"I'm not a doctor yet, am I?"

"You were a doctor in my eyes the moment you helped Jason take that bullet out of his knee." She remembered how much of a hassle she gave him. He didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve anything that she had done to him, yet he was willing to forgive her. Carly knew that she wouldn't be able to do something like that. Carly wasn't that mature. She would never be.

"I did what was needed."

"And you helped get the bullet out, right? You kept on doing what you could do to make sure that he was fine, that he would recover. Damian, if that isn't something that a doctor does then I don't know what is."

"A real doctor would have been able to do so much more."

"Everyone starts somewhere, right?" One thing that Carly didn't like about the boy was the way that he would always put himself down. He wanted to make it seem like he wasn't worthy of everything that he had been given, when Carly knew that nobody deserved it more.

"I guess."

"You know… you're not my son, Damian, and I know that I'll never be able to replace your mother, nor would I even want to try, but even now I can say with a great amount of pride to people that you're a member of my family."

He was touched by the statement, completely touched. Carly was saying that she was proud of him, he knew how much that took from her. If he was a more emotional person he probably would have started crying and hugging her, but he wasn't. The only time he really cried was when he missed his mother, and he tried to do that as infrequently as possible.

"Ever so humble, aren't you…"

"Or just stunned. You're giving me a compliment. Four months ago we would have been screaming at each other and you would have been trying to get me out of your life."

"That was four months ago, and you would have been yelling at me, too."

"We can do it again, for old times sake…"

"Maybe not in public."

"Your call."

Carly laughed. "You know, if you weren't my step-son, if you just came into our lives as some random person, I would have liked you from the start."

"I guess everything happened for a reason, right?" He replied. "I mean, if I came into your lives under false pretenses, if I didn't tell my father who I was right when I got the chance… what would have happened? You would have resented me when I came out with that secret, wouldn't you have?"

"Yes… and you know how I know that?"

"How?"

"Because Ric did the same thing. He got my trust and the whole time he kept it a secret that he and Sonny were brothers. Ric's a sick, twisted bastard and I've never been more certain of that in my life…"

"You really don't think he can change, do you?"

"I know you care about him," she tried to sound sympathetic. It wasn't her place to tell him who he could and couldn't involve himself with. Damian was a grown adult. He earned the freedom of choice. "But that doesn't mean that I'm going to forgive everything that he's done. This isn't a Disney movie, Damian. The bad people don't just atone for their sins and then start dancing around with talking animals."

"Wouldn't it be great if they did?"

"It would get annoying really quickly." She could only watch those movies so many times before they got on her nerves.

"You never answered the question, Carly… why are you here?"

"I'm looking for my mother, have you seen her?"

He froze, trying to think of a good excuse to tell her. He had seen Bobbie, of course, but he didn't want her to know that and he knew for a fact that Bobbie didn't want her to know that. "I tried to talk with her, but she was swamped with paperwork…"

"I'm sure she can take a break."

"Carly… she really was busy. It was hard for her to even carry all of the files that she needed to work on."

"I'll get her one of those push carts so she can pay attention."

"You're going to ask her about your father, aren't you?" Anyone who knew what the current train of thought in Carly's mind was could put two and two together.

"I hear it from everyone else in the family, Damian… please, I don't need to hear it from you."

"Hear what?"

"About how stupid I'm being. About how I don't need my father in my life because I've gone this long without him. Everyone's thinking that I'm doing it because I just want to have a father, and I won't lie, that's part of the reason, but if I weren't a mother I wouldn't care. The big reason is because of my children."

"I respect that."

"You, of all people, should understand what I'm going through, Damian. How many times did you think about your father when you were growing up? It must have been so hard for you when your mother died…"

"It was."

"I've been through this before, Damian. I came here to find my mother because I knew who she was… I'm not saying my intentions were great, because they weren't, they were horrible reasons that I'll never be able to forgive myself for, even if my mother has. Don't you think I know what's at risk…"

"Carly…"

"Don't give me those eyes!" She snapped. "I hate it when people look at me with eyes of pity. I'm not a little girl, I don't need my hand held…"

"You don't understand what's at risk…"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about our family, Carly. Think about who your husband is. Say that you find your father, that you bring him into your life… what happens when someone finds out and they bribe your dad into finding something out about my dad so that they can send him away from us?"

"He wouldn't do that…"

"How can you know that?"

"Because I wouldn't let him!"

"You can't stop people from thinking what they want to think, Carly. You might be a powerful person, you might have the ability to change minds… but what if your father is some poor farmer?" Damian knew that Carly's father had more than enough money, but he was giving her the likely scenario. His father wasn't stupid, Sonny wouldn't let Durant into his life, but Durant would keep on trying.

"You're against me too, aren't you?"

"I want to do everything that I can to keep my little brothers safe, you know that."

"You can't save Michael! You're not blood!"

"Carly, stop it!"

Carly looked behind Damian and saw Bobbie standing there. Bobbie wasn't pleased, neither was Carly. "Momma…"

"What do you think you're doing?" Bobbie asked. "You're attacking your stepson, your innocent stepson, because he's trying to tell you that what you're doing could be a disaster waiting to happen."

"I just want answers…"

"I'll give you an answer," Bobbie said firmly. "You're never going to get one from me. No matter what questions you ask, I won't tell you because I do not remember. There's your answer. Everything that you think of is not going to be answered. Stop while you're ahead…"

"If my children suffer because of you I will never forgive you…" Carly stormed off, taking the stairs because she knew that if she had to stand still in the elevator she was going to scream.

Bobbie sighed, "Now I'm even more regretful for bringing you into this…"

"You don't need to be, I told you I would do it."

"But I should have known…"

"I feel horribly for lying to her like this. Each time she looks at me, each time she mentions her father… I don't know if I can handle it."

"You have to!" Bobbie grabbed his hands. "You promised me that you wouldn't tell her what was going on. You can't tell anyone. Just you and Maxie can know."

"Bobbie… what if she's telling the truth? What if Carly will never be able to forgive you for holding this from her? I don't want to see you lose your relationship with your daughter, I don't want her to lose you, and I don't want Michael and Morgan to lose you either… you mean too much to all of us."

Bobbie closed her eyes, she knew what was at risk. "I have to take these chances. If I don't then it could be worse than anything that could possibly happen if I told her."


	113. The Family Traits

Corinthos Household-

One thing that was really good about the location of the penthouse was the fact that he could always watch the waves if he wanted to. All he needed to do was go outside on the terrace and listen. It was dark, so he couldn't necessarily see them with his own actual eyes, but the silent night of the Port Charles coastline made it so the echoes of the waves could be heard. His actual eyes may not have been able to see the waves, but in his minds eye, he could.

The wind that came from the shore carried throughout the air, brushing his uncombed hair into his face, tickling his nose. As with most costal areas, it was cold, and since it wasn't California the definition of cold was that which meant it was really, really cold. His jacket was on and he could still feel the goose bumps that were traveling up his arms. Maybe they weren't just because of the cold, maybe they were because of his nerves. He knew what he was doing and he knew that on some level it was wrong. Damian knew that Carly had a right to know who her father was. Everyone did. It was hypocritical of him to deny Carly the same thing that he wanted, but he didn't have a choice. When Damian came to Port Charles it was to find Sonny Corinthos and establish a relationship with him. If John Durant came to Port Charles it would be to bring Sonny Corinthos down, his daughter would be, at best, a secondary task. How could Carly feel about that? Damian wasn't sure, but he knew that he didn't want to see her heart get broken.

Sonny looked over at the clock as he walked down the stairs. Two in the morning. Most people would be asleep by now, but Sonny wasn't most people and sleep was something that he frequently tried to avoid. Eventually it would take a toll on his body, he knew that, but he would deal with that situation when it arrived. He was still strong enough to do what needed to be done. Strong enough to protect his family. And even if he managed to slip up a few times he knew that Jason would always be there to help him out.

Sonny was used to the rounds that he would make from time to time, just about every night, walking around the house and making sure that nobody had managed to sneak passed the guards. They were paid to keep everyone away, but Sonny knew that they were just human and that sometimes they needed to do something, like use the bathroom or get a bite to eat. He prided himself on not being the type of person who ruled his empire with an iron fist. Nobody had been killed for failing him, the only ones who had been killed were those who had betrayed him or his family. As a young man, Sonny had seen people killed for something so trivial as getting the wrong type of sandwich, or buying the wrong color tie. That world scared Sonny deeply, and although there were similar traits in the world that he occupied and the world that terrified him, Sonny made sure that he did his best to keep them as separate as possible.

Some things were usual for Sonny when it came to his nightly sweep of his home. The silence, hearing his own footsteps echo through the lifeless halls of the penthouse that he had always dreamed of having. His own little castle in the sky, a bulletproof home that was neigh impossible to penetrate, complete with a view over Port Charles that he could always look over. Some would think that he wanted to rule the entire town, but they were wrong. Sonny just wanted to live his life and provide for his family. He could have done just that completely with the coffee business alone, but deep down Sonny knew that the money of a coffee importer wasn't enough to keep his family in the wealth that he knew they deserved. If he was just a coffee importer he wouldn't be able to pay for medical school, he wouldn't be able to buy Michael whatever he wanted. The man knew what it was like to grow up wanting things, and he was not going to let his children or his wife want, they would always get. It was the least he could do for them, providing for them as a husband and father, the two most important roles in Sonny's life.

Sonny was surprised to see the terrace door partially opened. Instinctively he put his hand on the handle of his gun, thinking that someone was trying to break into the house and harm the people that he cared about. The silencer was on, enough to keep everyone unaware of what was happening, enough to make sure that Michael didn't come running down the stairs and see a bleeding corpse, his father holding a smoking gun. So far, Sonny had managed to keep the boy from realizing those things, but time wouldn't be on his side forever.

His nerves were eased the moment he looked through the glass door and saw Damian standing outside, his hands moving up and down his arms. "You know," Sonny began as he moved his jacket flap over the gun, hoping that he didn't look too obvious, "it's warmer inside, a lot warmer."

The sudden appearance of his father made his heart skip. He startled too easily, it wouldn't make him a good mobster. Not that he wanted to be one to begin with. "Dad…"

"What are you doing out here?"

"Couldn't sleep…"

Sonny made his way to the railing of the terrace, leaning against it. "Something on your mind?"

"There's always something on my mind…"

"Anything I can help with?"

He would have told Sonny everything about John Durant, but he knew he couldn't. Sonny didn't need to know, and even if he did find out he would do something that would end up hurting everyone involved. The amount of people who were being lied to just continued to stack up. Maybe Bobbie was right, maybe it was a bad idea to get him involved. He hated lying.

Sonny hated the silence that his son so frequently managed to encompass. It was an obvious trait inherited from Sonny himself, and the mobster was quickly seeing just how infuriating it must have been to people like Carly and Courtney. Only Jason merited infrequent silence, which showed something about their relationship, but Sonny trusted Jason with the details that he knew would just harm his wife and his little sister. His silence was to protect them, nothing more.

Finally, Damian spoke, continuing to gaze into the dark space that was all he could see with his eyes. "I used to stay up like this back in Los Angeles…"

"Well, the frequent echoes of gunshots and police sirens will do that to a person…"

"It wasn't like that… at least not all the time."

"Your mother must have been terrified of raising you there…" Sonny wouldn't raise his children in Los Angeles, even if he was the person that he was in Port Charles. Los Angeles was just too big, there were too many things that could go wrong, almost no way to keep the children safe.

"It never really came up," he said. "I think she was just happy that she had someone that she could depend on. If my grandparents weren't there I don't know what we would have done. I mean, I know single mothers aren't that rare nowadays, and they weren't when I was a kid, but it's still hard to do everything if you're alone, and she always wanted to spend as much time with me as she could…"

"To make up for not having a father…"

"She never spoke ill of you, dad, I told you that." She never really spoke of him, period. But he had seen a few other single mothers who were always speaking horribly about the men that had gotten them pregnant. Ana-Maria wasn't like that. She obviously understood that Sonny had as little choice in the matter as she did, and she couldn't hold it against him. They were both nothing more than victims of circumstance.

"She might have thought it, though."

"Neither of us can be certain of what my mother was thinking. I knew her better than just about anyone, but even I didn't know her that well…"

"You remind me of her."

"What?"

Sonny looked over, "You remind me of your mother. At least what I knew about her. The selflessness that you have inside of you, the way that you're willing to do anything to help the people that you care about, no matter what it does to you… you certainly didn't get that from me."

"Dad…"

"It's true, son. People like to go overboard with the type of person I am, but on some degree they're correct. I'm cold, ruthless, and there are plenty of things that I deserve to be put in jail for. I don't try and hide those facts from myself, Damian, because I can't. Each time I look in the mirror I know that I'm losing another part of what remains of my soul…"

"So why don't you just stop doing this? You have enough money now…"

"I tried to get out of the business before, remember? It almost got you killed because people assumed I was weak. I can't take that risk again. I won't take that risk on you or on anyone else. You and your brothers are the most prized possessions in my life, if I lost any of you I don't know what I would do."

"Then I guess I'll just have to keep you tethered down, won't I?"

Sonny grinned, dimples flashing for just a second, "You think you can do something like that?"

"I know I'll try…" he wasn't going to let his father spiral down into the dark pits of his mind without at least doing everything that he could to keep Sonny with him, not just for Michael and Morgan, but for himself as well.

"I used to dream about this when I was a little boy…"

"Dream about what?"

"Having a place that I could call my own, by the beach, where I could go outside and just listen to the ocean for hours. When everything seemed like it was falling apart around me, and that happened quite frequently, especially with my stepfather, it was that little dream that kept me going…"

"I'm glad that you got everything that you wanted out of life…"

"Not everything."

"What are you missing?"

"The one thing that I always wanted… I wanted my mother to try and accept me for who I was, who I am, but she never did."

"Adella loved you." He'd never called her anything other than Adella, but calling her grandma just seemed odd. If she was alive he would have gladly done it, but that wasn't possible.

"I know she loved me, Damian, but she hated who I was. Sort of like how you were in the beginning."

"I'm sure she didn't hate you."

"She hated what I did. I can't blame her."

"Dad… I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I'm sorry that you weren't able to say goodbye to your mother, but… I don't know… this isn't really my area of expertise."

"I couldn't be a good son, like you were… I couldn't make my own mother happy."

"She'd be happy of the man you are now," Damian replied. "She would see the way you are with Michael and Morgan and she would know that, even if she didn't agree with everything that you did, at the core of your being you were a man with a good heart and that you would do everything to help your children. That's all any mother can expect from her children, to be good parents."

"You're going to be a good father."

"Back up," Damian stated defensively, "I'm not about to take that plunge yet…"

Sonny chuckled, "I know you're not ready to have kids yet, Damian, but I'm just saying that when you become a father, you're going to be a good one."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know what it's like to grow up without a father, or at least one who did something good. When you lack that part of your life growing up you become the type of person who wants to do nothing more than make up for it by being the best dad you can be when your time comes. Mike and Deke may have been horrible examples for being a father, but they were perfect examples of how not to be."

"You're not a bad example… as long as I ignore the whole gun thing."

"I have to do this to protect you and your brothers…"

"I know."

"And when you become a father I'm going to have people watching your children all the time. They're still my grandchildren, they could still be used as leverage…"

"Maybe it would be best if we didn't talk about this," Damian noted. He didn't want to think about his fictional children being fictional objects for a fictional war that his father was having with his not so fictional foes. That alone was almost reason enough to get a vasectomy.

"So then what should we do?"

"Stand around and brood?"

The chuckle returned, "Now that is something that you certainly did get from me…"


	114. Blindfold

Elizabeth's Home-

Her dreams were pleasant, filled with nothing but love for the man that she was going to marry again. It was better than the dreams that she had immediately following her first divorce to Ric. Dreams of his destructive qualities taking over both him and her, destroying them both. Now she could only see his beautiful smile as he waited to feel her touch. Elizabeth had loved many people in her time, Jason and Lucky being but two of them, but Ric was something special. Ric was the one that she knew she wanted to be with. She wanted to help him get through all of his problems and she knew that she could do it. He had support now. Not just support from her, but support from his nephew as well. They could keep Ric stabilized, keep him from doing something that he would eventually regret. And then they would have a family. Ric wanted children so much, Elizabeth wanted to help with that. Luckily for her, unlike Courtney, her miscarriage didn't involve the very high chance of never being able to have a child again. She could still have children. It was the only bright spot in the altogether bleak memory of losing the child that she and Ric were going to have. If that baby had not have died things would have been so much different.

Elizabeth was about to kiss Ric in her dream when it ended, her eyes shooting open as she groaned, putting her hand on her face. The phone. It was always the phone. She reached over and grabbed the phone, putting the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

"Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth sat up, pushing herself against the wooden headboard of her bed. "Em?"

Emily Quartermaine, Elizabeth's dearest friend and closest confidante, giggled on the other end of the phone, "Nikolas called Lucky last night… and it slipped that you're going to get married today!"

Elizabeth laughed with Emily. Emily had an infectious laugh that she could almost never get away from. "Yeah, Ric and I decided that we wanted something small and that we didn't want to wait."

"Not even for me?"

"I'm sorry, Emily, but I didn't want to pull you and Nikolas away from your vacation just to come back and watch me get married again."

"You know I would have."

"I know you would have, and I love you for it, but it was my call to make and I just wanted you and Nikolas to have some more time alone together. Maybe plan a wedding of your own."

"Don't get ahead of yourself…"

"With thousands of white roses, and doves…"

"Elizabeth…"

"And a symphony…"

"Elizabeth Webber, I'm going to hang up on you if you don't stop with this nonsense about planning my wedding!"

"Come on, Emily, you know how we used to do it when we were teenagers. We would think about what was going to happen when we got married. Remember the few times when we had it in our heads that we would get married on the same day?"

"Yeah… I do." Emily sighed, because she knew that in those dreams it involved her marrying Nikolas and Elizabeth marrying Lucky. Now it was going to be different. Elizabeth would always be her dearest friend, but Elizabeth wouldn't be her sister-in-law. She also had reservations about Ric. He had broken Elizabeth's heart before, and Emily would never forgive him for that.

"Em, you okay?"

"Are you sure about this?"

Elizabeth was surprised by the question. "Of course I'm sure about this, why wouldn't I be?"

"Most people don't really try and get married to the same person after the first time…"

"This is Port Charles, Emily, half of the people here end up getting re-married after they get divorced. Look at your parents!"

"I know that, but…"

"Emily," Elizabeth sighed, "I know you're looking out for me, I understand that and I respect you for it, but you can't tell me what to do with my life."

"I'm not!"

"You haven't yet, but you're going to try and tell me that I might be making a mistake, aren't you? You're going to say something about how I shouldn't trust a relationship with Ric again because of what happened the first time. Don't you think that I've thought about that over and over in my head? Don't you think that I tried to stay away from him at first, tried to keep myself from falling in love with him again? Well I did try, Emily, and I couldn't do it. I love Ric Lansing with all my heart, and nothing is going to change that, not even you."

Emily didn't expect a speech, but she could tell that she had struck a nerve. She understood why Elizabeth was getting defensive, there was no doubt in Emily's mind that her best friend needed all the support that she could get when it came to her decision. Ric certainly didn't have the best reputation amongst the people of Port Charles. "I just don't want to see you get hurt again."

"He won't hurt me again, Emily, believe me. I know that Ric is a changed man. He's the man that I fell in love with the first time, he's that and he's so much more…"

"If you say so."

"Tell me you believe me."

"Elizabeth…"

"Tell me you believe me, Emily, because if you don't then I'm going to go into this marriage thinking that my best friend doesn't approve of it, and I don't want that."

Emily fell silent, thinking about what she was going to do. A part of her didn't want to say anything, a part of her wanted Elizabeth to realize what she was getting herself into again, but Emily knew that she couldn't do that to Elizabeth. Elizabeth deserved every bit of happiness that she got and more. "I believe you, Elizabeth, and I wish you the best, both of you."

"Thank you, that means so much to me…"

"Does it count as your wedding present?"

Elizabeth snickered, "No, it doesn't. You're telling me that a rich girl like you and your prince boyfriend can't afford a blender or something?"

"We can buy you one while we're over here… but the voltage difference might not work out that well in the end…"

"Why don't the two of us just agree that you don't need to get me anything…"

"Elizabeth…"

"If you get me something, fine, if you don't, that's also okay. Your support means more than any gift that you could ever think of giving me, Emily."

"I should go," Emily said. "Nikolas and I have reservations to go and eat, I just had to call you before you took that walk… you're going to be beautiful, Elizabeth, not that you already weren't."

"I'll make sure that there are plenty of pictures for you to look at when you come home."

"You'd better!"

"Bye, Emily," Elizabeth put the phone back on the receiver and was ready to try and catch up on her sleep. The moment she put her head on her pillow, however, she was once more interrupted by a different sound. The sound of someone knocking on her front door. Dejected, Elizabeth threw the comforter off her body and walked out of her room towards the door.

"Elizabeth! Time to get up!"

"Ric?" Elizabeth talked through the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I know how much you love to sleep in…"

"Do you think I would really sleep through our wedding?"

"If you had the chance, yes, yes I do."

Elizabeth shook her head, fully aware of the fact that Ric couldn't see her. "You know, its bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding!"

"I thought that was only if the bride was dressed up in her wedding gown."

"No, I don't think so."

"Well I took care of that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Why don't you open the door and find out."

"Ric…"

"Just open the door," Ric pleaded, the grin on his face wide and filled with jovialness. Ric loved being around Elizabeth because when he was around her he felt something that he didn't feel at other times. He felt happy, he felt whole.

"All right…" Elizabeth hesitantly reached over to the doorknob and started to turn it. When she pulled the door open she laughed. Ric was standing there, a blindfold covering his eyes.

"I told you I had it covered," Ric could tell where she was by the sound of her voice. He could be a blind man, never once being able to truly see Elizabeth's physical beauty, but he would love her all the same.

"What are you doing here…"

"I just wanted to have one last moment with you before we had to take our separate paths and get ready, is that so horrible?"

"No, in fact, I think it's actually quite romantic."

"You do?"

"I do." Elizabeth walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him softly on the lips. "There aren't any rules about the bride and groom kissing before the wedding, are there?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Good, because if they had one I wouldn't be able to keep myself in check. And then, tonight…"

"Let's not discuss tonight, shall we?" Ric asked. "Let's just let it happen and see where it takes us…"

"Do you think we can do it this time?" Elizabeth asked, unable to keep the doubt that was swelling inside of her heart a secret forever.

"What?"

"This whole marriage thing… do you really think that we can make it work now?"

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"I just don't want to worry about you again, I don't want to see you kill yourself on the inside because of everything…"

Ric placed his index finger on Elizabeth's lip. "Nothing will ever happen that will destroy our relationship like the last time, Elizabeth. I promise you that. I never want to lose you again, you mean too much to me."

Elizabeth hugged him tightly, believing every word. There were plenty of times when Ric would tell her something that she wasn't sure anything would actually come true, but in that moment, she was a believer.


	115. The Suit

Corinthos Household-

Some tasks were too daunting for even him to attempt, but Damian knew that there were times when he needed to do away with his reservations and take one for the team. He didn't want to do it, he hated the mere idea of doing what needed to be done, but as he had realized many times in the passed, choices were not really on his side. He would do what was needed, get it over with, and move on with life. But it was just so hard for him to even stomach the idea of it. He wasn't his father. Damian couldn't go and do the things that Sonny Corinthos did, he wasn't that type of person. Sonny would have been completely okay with doing what needed to be done, but it was Damian's task and he was much too old to go running to daddy and looking for a quick fix.

"All right," he grumbled as he reached out to touch the cool metal. "You and I have an agreement, right? I go and take a shower, get out, put you on, go out in public, do my thing, come back, put you away, and keep you away until I need you again. Deal?" He looked at the suit, the fancy dress pants, the silk shirt. If people didn't know that he was Sonny Corinthos's oldest son already they would probably get the hint by the fashion attire. And why wouldn't they? It was Sonny who picked the outfit himself. The only other time he had ever used it was when he went on his first actual date with Maxie. She loved it, and he didn't mind being it in, but the idea of getting into it was not very fun. It was like he was tossing his morals aside. He was a jeans and t-shirt kind of man, very much like Jason, just without the leather fixation.

Damian waited, looking for something, anything that could help him get out of his situation, but it didn't come. His uncle was getting married and he was expected to be there. Damian wouldn't let Ric or Elizabeth down, they both meant more to him than he could ever hope to express. It was through their actions that he was even allowed to be with anyone. He would have died more than once if Ric hadn't have saved his life, either by telling Sonny about Faith's plans to kill him while he went back to Los Angeles, or when he was bleeding on the street after being hit by Alcazar's hired hit man. No matter the bad blood between Ric and Sonny, Damian knew that he would never turn his back on his uncle, and hoped that neither would ask him to harm the other.

Finally subjecting himself to the unavoidable truth of spending a few hours in a suit that made him look like he was something that he wasn't, Damian walked out of the room, looking around and making sure that nobody would see him as he carried the clothing into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The steam from the hot water filled the room in a matter of seconds, fogging up the mirror and windows of the bathroom. He placed the suit securely on the sink, making sure that it wouldn't fall down onto the ground. After popping open a window to help the steam filter out of the small room, he stripped, feeling the chill run down his entire body before he stepped inside. Damian couldn't deny it, but a part of him wanted Maxie there with him again.

Sonny came walking down the stairs. It was another day, just like any other day. Unlike most people, Sonny never truly got a day of rest. Even holidays weren't immune to the mob activity. In fact, they were often the best time to strike, since so many did truly value their families, despite their less than honorable occupations. Sonny had made a vow to never strike another person's territory on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter, but that didn't mean that others would play by his rules. They rarely did. Neither of the holiday's were on that day, but something could have been happening while Sonny remained unaware.

Sonny opened the door and saw Max standing there, as he almost always did. Max was a valued member of Sonny's team, but to so many people he appeared to be little more than a doorman. It wasn't true, Max was good for so much more. He was great with Michael and Morgan, and handy in a shootout. "Any news?"

Max always felt something happen to him whenever Sonny Corinthos spoke, as if it could have been the last words that he ever heard. He trusted Sonny and believed that Sonny had a code, but Max had seen so many times in the passed that Sonny just as much of a firecracker as anyone else. If something went wrong and Sonny snapped, Max wasn't sure if he, or anyone else save Jason, would make it out alive. "No. Mr. C… why, are you expecting something?"

"Sometimes I get this feeling, you know?" Sonny asked. "Like someone is trying to come in and take me down." Sonny was unaware of the plot that was being hatched by John Durant, his father-in-law. If the feeling actually did bring his end was something that was still in question, but there was certainly no imminent danger.

"Nobody can take you down…"

"I wish that were true, Max," Sonny replied. "But none of us are immortal. Someone's going to take me down, I don't know when and I don't know who… but I can't last forever."

Max had never really heard Sonny talk about his impending end, it made him feel even more uncomfortable with the situation. "I'll stand by you until the end, Mr. C. You know that."

"Good man," Sonny appreciated the gesture. So many people would turn tail and switch sides if he was going down, but Max and Jason were among the few who Sonny believed would stay by his side. "If anything happens…"

"I'll tell you."

"Thank you." Sonny closed the door, walking back into the living room of the house, the furniture finally back where he liked it. He hated sitting in his chair when it didn't feel like it was where it needed to be.

"You know, I kind of liked the furniture the way it was…"

Sonny saw Carly walking down the stairs, still dressed in her nightgown. She had so many outfits, but she enjoyed staying in her more comfortable sleeping attire as long as she could. Sonny wasn't like that. He felt better in his suits, more powerful, more in control. "You would, you were the person who decided to move them around and you wouldn't let yourself think that something you did wasn't great. It's called an ego complex, Carly."

She scoffed, "I do not have an ego complex…"

"Denial is one of the signs."

"Sonny Corinthos!"

Sonny grinned, "All right, you don't have an ego complex. You're perfectly capable of keeping your ego in check."

"Thank you."

"On February 29th…"

She understood the rib. He was saying that she could only control her ego one day every four years, but she ignored it. There were so many times that she couldn't joke around with her husband, she needed to cherish the moments that she had with him. "I heard you last night, you know…"

"What?"

"Last night, with your son," Carly took a seat next to him. "You weren't talking that loud, but I ended up waking up because I thought I heard Morgan crying, but I was kept up by the sound of you and him talking on the terrace. I looked out our window…"

"And?"

"And what?"

"You're grinning at me, Carly, what are you trying to say?"

"I just wanted to say that when I saw you with him I realized how much you care about him and how much he cares about you… not to mention how much he reminds me of you."

"Does he?"

"Yes, he does," she smiled. "He would have been a good person even if he never met you, Sonny, because he inherited that part of you that makes you the man that you are, the person that you are deep down, under everything that you've been through, under all the pain. He shares that with you, and if a child of yours can manage to inherit your heart, then that's all that they really ever needed… although the dimples wouldn't hurt."

"He might get other things from me, you know…"

"Don't do that to yourself."

"He's already afraid of turning into me…"

"He won't."

Sonny saw Damian walk out in his suit. Since it was only the second time that he had ever seen the boy dressed up, Sonny was understandably surprised. He whispered to Carly, "Are you sure about that?"

Carly turned around, seeing Sonny's eyes look away from her and at someone else. When she saw him she also ended up just standing there, looking, trying to keep her jaw from hanging open. "Damian…"

"Sorry," the boy said softly, "I didn't know the two of you were in here…"

Carly stood up and walked over, "What are you wearing? Let me look at you… this looks like your father's suit…"

"He bought it."

"I still think that you could use a few more of them," Sonny said. "Son, just say the word, and I'll get you enough to last for months on end…"

"No, that's fine…"

"Why are you wearing a suit?" Carly asked, finally finished with her examination of the suit in question and moving onto the occasion.

"I have somewhere to be…"

"If you're going on a date with Maxie again you don't need to hide it from us." Sonny thought the boy knew better than that. "We like Maxie."

Carly looked over at him, "We do?"

Sonny rolled his eyes, "I like Maxie."

"I'm not going on a date with Maxie." He did take note of Carly's correction, but he didn't really hold it against her. If Damian and Carly could find a way to have a healthy working relationship with one another then there was no way that Carly and Maxie couldn't do the same… eventually. Maybe after one of them died.

"So where are you going?" Sonny continued to ask, not willing to just give up. "Wait… are you going to church?"

"A church might be involved…" he didn't know where they were going to get married. He didn't even know what time it was at, but the sooner he got into the suit the less time he spent trying to talk himself out of wearing it. He just hoped that it was soon. "I'm going to a wedding…"

"Who's wedding?" Sonny didn't know anyone who Damian knew that would be getting married, unless Dillon and Georgie intended on eloping, which Jason probably wouldn't like, and Mac certainly wouldn't.

"Uncle Ric's…" the answer was low, he tried to keep it from even being heard.

Carly, being closer, did hear it. "You're going to his wedding?"

"Who's wedding?" Sonny again asked.

Carly looked at him, "Your psychopathic brother's wedding…"

"Ric's getting married again?"

"Yes, dad, Uncle Ric is getting married to Elizabeth today. He asked me to be there as one of the witnesses…"

"And you accepted?"

"He saved my life, twice," Damian reminded his father, hoping that it would help. "I think I can go to his wedding…"

"I wouldn't," Carly let her opinion be known, as she did on so many other occasions. She didn't like Ric, never would, and Elizabeth was far from her favorite person as well.

"Which is why you weren't invited," Damian didn't want them to know, but now they did and it was anyone's guess what would happen next. "Please… if you don't stay away for them, then do it for me. I want to see both of them be happy, I care about them so much. They didn't invite you because Uncle Ric was afraid that you would go and cause a scene…"

Sonny looked away, his back turned to his child. "I don't agree with you going to this thing, but you're an adult and you can make your own choices. Just be careful, all right?"

"Nothing will happen, dad," Damian walked out the door, leaving Sonny and Carly there alone.

"I hope not," Sonny whispered, but he knew that there were plenty of things that could happen.


	116. Letting Her Go

Port Charles Courthouse-

He'd never really been to the courthouse, despite his family relations. Damian didn't think that he would ever need to go for anything more than a trial that was being held for either his father or his uncle, but he knew that he was at the courthouse for a good reason. They didn't want to get married in a church. They didn't want something big. They just wanted to have a little ceremony where they would be almost completely alone. He felt honored to be one of the few people who were actually allowed to be there with them. Damian had been to several weddings, but Mexican weddings were those that were best forgotten. Hour long celebrations. They were hard to get through as a child, and as a teenager they were unbearable, especially when he was expected to be in them. The only wedding he wanted to be in was his own, and even that was stretching it.

"You look about as uncomfortable in that as I do…"

Damian turned his head over his shoulder, "Lucky… hi."

Lucky Spencer walked over and smiled. He was wearing a suit, much like Damian, but Lucky was a Spencer, he hated doing anything that required him being dressed up, he felt like it was against the very nature of his being. "Don't worry, these things should be short…"

"I can manage."

"You seem to be handling it better than me. I think I'm going to have a rash because of this stupid tie…"

"You never could put a tie on, could you?" Elizabeth asked, grinning widely as she walked up to the two men that would see her at her wedding. "Lucky, there are some things that you just can't do."

Lucky looked at Elizabeth, trying to keep his smile happy, but there was a little bit of sadness that was there, that couldn't be hid. Lucky didn't expect Elizabeth to love him anymore, and Lucky himself had moved on, but seeing Elizabeth in that dress made him think about what could have been. "You look…"

Damian couldn't hold it in. "Beautiful."

"Yeah, what he said…"

"You two don't look that bad yourself," Elizabeth felt some guilt for having them dress up, but it was her wedding, she had the right to ask that it be a formal occasion. "But you, Mr. Spencer, could use some help…"

Lucky blushed, "What are you talking about?"

"Look," Elizabeth walked over and grabbed the tie, loosening its hold around Lucky's neck, giving him more room to breathe before securing it again. It hung a little lower around his neck, but he wouldn't have welts or possibly pass out during her ceremony due to lack of circulation. She couldn't have that. "There," she patted him on his chest, remembering when she used to do it with an entirely different meaning, "that better?"

"Much," Lucky felt the pain subside almost as soon as she touched him. Maybe it wasn't because of her actions, maybe it was just because of her touch. "Thank you, Elizabeth."

"Anything for one of my dearest friends…"

"Where's Uncle Ric?" Damian wondered. He knew that it was bad luck for the bride to see the groom before the wedding, and he also knew that they needed all the luck they could get. Fate was against Ric and Elizabeth. Damian wished that it wasn't true, but it was. He'd do what he could to help them with their marriage, but it wouldn't work without both of them wanting to stay together. They said that they wanted that, but how long would they keep on saying that?

"I don't know," Elizabeth shrugged. "I hope he didn't get cold feet…"

"I don't think he would ditch you at the altar," Damian replied. "He loves you so much, Elizabeth. I can see it."

"So can I," Lucky agreed. "It'll be different this time."

Elizabeth nodded and smiled, "I know it will. Everything is going to be all right. But I just wanted to thank both of you for coming today."

"Where else would we be?" Damian stood next to Lucky, "You wanted us, we came… right, Lucky?"

"Right…"

Elizabeth knew Lucky well enough to see that there was something in his eyes. He was sad. But she couldn't do anything about it. She had made her choice, he had made his. She was willing to do everything that she was about to do with Ric with Lucky, but he didn't want it. "I should go put on the rest of my makeup…"

"You don't need it," Damian grinned. "You would look beautiful without any…"

"You haven't seen me early in the morning."

"But I have," Lucky remembered those days quite vividly. "You looked great, Liz."

"You're just saying that so I don't feel even more self-conscious about myself today. I shouldn't be this nervous, this is my second wedding…"

"You have to believe that everything is going to be all right, Liz," Lucky said sympathetically, giving her a hug. "I believe it…"

"Thanks," she whispered in his ear. "You have no idea how much that means to me, coming from you."

"You'll always be a part of my life," Lucky felt the beginnings of tears in his eyes, but he knew how to hold them back. "You might not be my love anymore, but you'll always be in my heart."

"You will, too… you know that." Unlike Lucky, Elizabeth couldn't hold back the tears. It meant so much to her that Lucky was trying to accept the relationship. She knew that Lucky had reservations about Ric, especially after everything that had happened.

"You'd better go," Lucky said, releasing his hold on her, "you need to finish the makeup. Can't have you being late to your own wedding…"

Elizabeth wiped her eyes, "You're right. I'll see you both in a few minutes…"

Lucky watched her leave into another room, closing the door behind her. With Elizabeth safely out of eye and ear's reach, Lucky gave a loud sigh, for a moment forgetting that Damian was even there. It was like a chapter of his life was being taken away from him, and he didn't want that.

"You still care about her, don't you?"

"I just don't want her to make the same mistakes that she did the first time…"

"She won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because my uncle is a different person now. He's not driven by his hatred of my father. Elizabeth used to be the one thing that would keep him tied down to his humanity, now she's his reason for getting up in the morning."

"Are you sure you're not just hoping that's true? You didn't know Ric when he did the things that he did… when he took my cousin and her unborn child and held them captive…"

"He's saved my life, Lucky. He's done it twice… I'm as much Sonny Corinthos's son as Morgan is."

"He wants someone to be on his side…"

"Is that so much to ask, Lucky?" Ric asked as he walked up. "Is it so much to ask that I have one member of my family that doesn't think I'm some version of the anti-Christ?"

"Ric…"

"Don't try and apologize to me, Lucky," Ric said bitterly. "I know that you would just be doing it so you didn't ruin Elizabeth's wedding day. I know you don't like me, I know you don't trust me and I'll be completely honest when I say that I have no reason for you to even give a damn about me, but I will not have you thinking that I'm not in love with Elizabeth. She's important to you and you're important to her, I don't like that, but I respect it."

"If you know how important she is to me then you know how much I hate you for what you did…"

"You can't hate me nearly as much as I hate myself for the decisions that I made in the passed. I almost killed the woman that I love because at the time I was so blind with anger towards my brother. I'm not that person anymore. I want you to believe that."

"Then you need to give me a reason to."

"And you need to stop thinking that I'm automatically going to be the same person that I was back then…"

"I think you both need to just stop," Damian interrupted. "You guys don't like each other, you probably never will, but you both love her, don't you? I know you both care about Elizabeth so much and that neither of you want to ruin her life, or her wedding day, but if you keep on doing this… the only thing you're going to accomplish is that."

Ric shook his head. He knew his nephew was right. The hatred that was boiling between the two men was only going to cause Elizabeth pain. It wasn't the best way to start off a marriage. "I'm going to go check and see if the judge is ready…"

Lucky waited for Ric to leave, "You're good at that, you know?"

"At what?"

"Defending him when nobody else will…"

"I'm not defending anyone, Lucky, and I'm hurt that you would even think that I'm trying to do it. I just want Elizabeth to be happy, like both of you. She means a lot to me as well."

"You were never in love with her…"

"And that gives you a right to continue doing this? Continue to hover over her like some giant animal…"

"I'm just trying to protect her!"

"From someone who isn't going to hurt her, Lucky! You're looking for reasons to demonize him… and I'm not going to say that he hasn't already done plenty of things that would give him that reputation, but if you can't see that he's changed then you're just like my father…"

"I'm nothing like Sonny."

"You're blindly hating Ric and refusing to see that he might just be a different person. I would call that very Sonny-like."

"I shouldn't be here…" Lucky knew that he couldn't keep up with the image of him being happy with everything that was going on.

"If you leave she won't forgive you…"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because she wants you here," Damian knew how hard it had to be on Lucky, to see his first love getting married to someone that wasn't him, let alone to someone he didn't like. He felt for Lucky, but that didn't mean that he was going to say that everything that Lucky was doing was okay, because it wasn't. "She told you how much you mean to her. How much do you think she'll be hurt if you just leave?"

"Maybe I made the mistake of letting her go…"

"I'm sure you did. She's a great woman, but you can't change the past. Just be there for her, Lucky, right now, when she needs you the most."

Ric came back in, "The judge is ready… I'll be waiting."

Damian started to walk towards the door, "Well, what's it going to be? She can't get married if you're not here, they need two witnesses…"

Lucky thought about it for a long moment. Elizabeth did mean a lot to him, but she had moved on and so had he. It was hard to think of her without someone else, but she had the right to be happy. And Damian was right, she would be hurt if he left. Without saying a word, Lucky gave his answer as he followed the younger man towards the room. He just hoped he was doing the right thing.


	117. It's All Right To Fail

Kelly's-

It was his retreat, he realized that. No matter what he was going through, Kelly's would always be there, would always offer him something that he needed, regardless of if it was just a simple cup of tea, the music from the jukebox, the advice of his grandfather or his newly crowned Aunt Elizabeth, or even the silence and solitude of the room upstairs. Kelly's was important to him, and even though there were times that it was the last place that he wanted to be he knew he could always turn to it when he needed it, he even had a key to get in after hours, perks from still checking out an apartment above the restaurant.

The young man walked in, looking around. He knew some of the regular customers by name, having helped out as much as he could when he was needed, but none of the regulars were in, and there was no way Elizabeth was going to be working on her wedding night. He and Lucky had left the two newlyweds to do their own thing, parting ways a few moments later. The whole time that Damian was there he was looking at Lucky, hoping that the man wouldn't object to the wedding, or even give off intensely negative vibes. To Lucky's credit, he had managed to keep himself contained, but Damian could see that it was hard on him. Not that anyone could blame him. Damian had tried to see it through Lucky's point of view, using the example of how he would feel if Maxie was marrying someone else. It would require them breaking up, but even if that did happen to them he hoped that they would always be friends. In his vision he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold back some regret, especially if he wasn't in love himself. He understood the plight that Lucky was going through, probably better than Lucky would think, but that didn't mean that anything that Lucky might have tried was okay. Ric and Elizabeth deserved to be happy, and if their first hour of marriage was any indication, it looked like they could make it work this time.

"Hey, kid…"

Mike was standing behind the counter, as he most frequently was. He had found his calling in running Kelly's for Bobbie. Given what his calling used to be, Damian was happy for his grandfather, and knew that everyone else, even his own father, also shared the sentiment. "Busy day?"

"Well I can't get by without my favorite waitress, that's for sure." Elizabeth was more than just a waitress to Mike, she was a dear friend, someone who he could talk to when the place was dead. She understood what it was like to be rejected by people that she cared about, to not accept their lives. She even understood what Sonny went through. Mike had come to depend on Elizabeth in some ways, but he knew that she had a life all her own.

"I'm sure you'll manage…"

"Are you offering to help me out for a few days?"

Damian grinned as he walked over, leaning against the counter, "Would if I could, but I start my internship soon… which means that I probably won't even have enough time to breathe. I'll be doing that and taking classes… not exactly all that fun. If I come here it'll be for a quick second, unless I fall unconscious on the ground, completely exhausted."

"You're being given a great opportunity…"

"I know." He was getting tired of hearing people say it. He knew that he was lucky, that he didn't truly deserve the chances that he had been given, but each time someone reminded him of it the doubt just came stronger and lasted even longer.

"But I don't want you to push yourself," Mike continued. "I know that I'm one of the people that wanted you to do this, and I think you can handle it, but if you can't… then I'll understand, and so will your father. You're too important to both of us, Damian, we don't want you to get hurt."

"You're the first person who has told me that it's okay to fail…"

"Everyone fails at some point in life," it was sagely advice, but Mike was good at it. "Look at me… look at how many times I've failed. How many times I've needed people to get me out of whatever mess I've gotten myself into…"

"You're human…"

"So are you."

He lowered his eyes, "Sometimes people expect doctors to be more than human, they expect doctors to be miracle workers, super-humans… I did. And look what happened because of it."

"You were young and you were scared. You didn't want your mother to die, nobody would want that to happen…"

"What if I screw up then? Is it okay for me to screw up and cost someone their life? I don't think it is…"

"You won't fail, you know what's at stake…"

"You see? That's what I'm talking about. People are putting so much faith in me and I don't think I can handle it. I can't do everything that you people want…"

"I can't speak for everyone, but I just want you to be happy."

"I don't even know what makes me happy anymore," he admitted. Everything had been so skewered since he shot Lorenzo. He was just rolling with the motions. Everything that he was seemed to be gone now.

"Your girlfriend makes you happy…"

"Yes, she does."

"And she would hate to see you like this." Mike poured Damian some tea, knowing that it would help ease his nerves. Penny brought up an order. Mike groaned, placing the container of tea back on the heater. "I need to take care of this… you going to be all right?"

"I'll manage… and thanks for not saying anything about my attire."

"You look great…"

"I thought I just said…"

Mike winked at the boy, grinning, "I can't say you look good when you're wearing a suit that probably costs more than I make in a month? I might be old, but I'm not fashion incompetent."

"Thanks," Damian gripped the handle of the teacup in his hand, "for everything."

"I have a job to do as a grandfather, and it's to make sure that you don't ever go through life without some help."

Damian grabbed the sugar and began to pour it inside of the tea. He liked his tea sweet, maybe it was going to lead him to becoming a diabetic, but he would certainly enjoy the time he had with his sugar before that happened.

Brook walked into Kelly's, looking for a place that she could get away from everything. Her parents would never even think about going inside of Kelly's, and her grandmother… her grandmother probably didn't even know the place existed. It only worked in Kelly's favor. If Tracy Quartermaine knew about the place she would probably attempt to get it shut down for not meeting her rigid standards.

She was half-expecting someone that she knew to be inside. They always seemed to be there. It was like the teenage hangout on television shows, which normally would mean that it would be the last place that she ever wanted to be, but since there weren't that many people around that she knew Brook realized how important it was to get some friends. Dillon was great, so was Georgie… and then there was Damian, but they probably wouldn't be enough.

Not seeing the need for a table, Brook took a seat on one of the stools. She looked around for Mike, but didn't see him. He made good fries, and she was in the mood for something greasy and salty.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Brook looked over, noticing the voice, but taking a moment to register that it was the person who it sounded like. "Damian? What are you doing dressed like that?"

"You don't like it…"

She blushed slightly, "I didn't say that… I think it looks really good, but I mean it just isn't you… it's like me getting all dressed up in some gown for a formal dance…"

"I think you would look great in a formal dress, Brook, most people do."

The blush grew across her face. "Thanks… but that doesn't mean that I'm going to do it, not even for you…"

"I wouldn't ask you to dress in something like that, I know how much you would hate it."

"So why are you dressed like this anyway?"

"My uncle got married today… I was at the wedding."

"The district attorney, right?"

Damian nodded. "I'm sure that you've heard plenty of stories about him, and I'm not even going to try and tell you that what you heard wasn't true, but I'm asking you not to think of him like that. He's not that person anymore…"

"Hey, I believe that people can change… I really do."

"Spend a few months here, and you probably won't. I'm starting to forget that people can be redeemed."

"Are you okay?"

"Just going through some stuff right now…"

"Anything I can do?"

He shook his head, "I don't think that you can help me, but thanks for the offer."

"Why isn't your girlfriend helping you out?"

"She's done everything that she can and then some. This is one of those things that I need to deal with on my own, Brook, I can't get help from anyone, not my girlfriend, not my father, not even my friends… sorry."

"If you need me…"

"I'll know that I can go to you."

"There you are!" Maxie walked in, seeing Damian with Brook. The moment she saw the two of them alone together she knew that she needed to do something that would break them apart. "I should have known that you'd be here, it's like the only place that you're ever at…"

"I would be other places if there were other places around here…"

"You look great."

"You're just saying that."

"I've seen you in this suit before, remember? I mean, if you forgot then that's really grounds for the two of us to break up…"

"I would never forget my first date with the woman that I love…"

Brook rolled her eyes. Maxie was such a ditz, she didn't deserve Damian. She was the type of person who would worry about the color of her nails before a big dance, a shallow and fickle creature. Brook hated people like that. "You know what, I just remembered that I need to go and pick up something at the hospital…"

"Is everything all right?" Damian asked.

"Yeah, my ma just has some headaches and she got some pills that will make her feel better…" Brook lied through her teeth, but what else was she going to do? Tell them that she felt uncomfortable because they were gushing over each other like two dogs in heat? That didn't seem right. Besides, she didn't mind Damian being there, she just didn't want Maxie to be there with her. "So, I'll see you later…"

"Bye, Brook," Maxie said coldly, watching her leave. "I can't believe that she's so shameless that she would hit on you right where I can see it…"

"Maxie… she wasn't hitting on me."

"Yes she was," Maxie replied. "You just don't know it. I'm a girl, I know these things. Believe me." The young girl knew that her alternative rock counterpart was looking to steal her boyfriend, but Maxie wasn't going to just let it happen. If Brook wanted a fight, Maxie was ready to bring it and she knew that she would win.


	118. The Middleman

Notes: Once again I have forgotten to actually update the story, or at least I did yesterday, so, today, you get two chapters instead of one. Also, the story has officially been completed, the conclusion should be up by the weekend or the beginning of next week, and then I take a break until fall… cliffhanger endings and all.

Journeylove- I love AJ. I mean, I hate what he did to Michael, but damn, I love that man. He's so evil and wonderful at the same time… the very bad kind of evil, so I was sad to see him go. Better him than Jason, this much is true, but still. I don't know how I would fare as head GH writer, because I would be required to write Diego… even if it was just to write his death. It would be a glorious moment, but it would require spending time on Diego, which is a very bad thing. As you can see, I'm not fond of the boy. Carly wants Journey back together… although she's spending less time trying to break Casper up, so it makes you wonder.

Story-

Port Charles-

Dillon didn't understand why he did what he did from time to time, case in point, he was thinking about going into the mansion again, willingly. There was a time that he would never think about doing such things, a time when he would be repulsed by the very notion that was running through his mind. But that was before Brook Lynn came into his life. They weren't close, they probably wouldn't be close, but Dillon couldn't let poor Brook be corrupted by the Quartermaine's. She still had a life ahead of her, and it was his job, not only as her uncle, but merely as someone who knew what they were capable of, to save her from them.

Georgie would have been happy about it, so would Damian. They both wanted him to stay connected with his family, some of them taking measures that were little more than forcing him into their arms, but while Damian beat himself up over the choices that were made regarding Dillon, and more precisely Jason's, relationship with the family, Dillon didn't mind. The teenager knew that there were times when he could be a 'Quartermaine,' when he would have traits that showed just how deep the blood ran through him. They were stubborn people, unwilling to accept help even when they needed it most. Dillon was like that, but he was incredibly lucky to have a friend like Damian, a friend who would give him what he wanted, even though he didn't think that he did. The others didn't really have many friends. Emily did, but nobody else in the family, not even Jason, really. Sonny wasn't exactly a friend, he was more like a partner in operations. Dillon couldn't see the two of them engaging in idle chitchat, they were always talking about business or the family, family which may or may not have included Dillon.

If he needed any more reasons to prove himself different from the others in his family he was getting them constantly. He had a friend, he had a girlfriend, someone that he loved in ways that the others weren't capable of loving each other. Dillon had heard the stories of Alan and Monica's many marriages, of the manipulations. They had managed to forge a relationship of love, but it took a long time and it was still very fragile. Dillon never wanted to do something like that to Georgie, and he vowed that he never would. And then there was Tracy… but her relationships were best left ignored, even the one with his father.

"Dammit!"

Dillon stopped walking when he heard the voice of a female. Being the type of person that he was, hearing someone in distress made him head towards the sound, and make sure that they were all right. His surprise couldn't be contained when he saw that it was Brook Lynn, on the ground. Dillon watched as she got up to her knees before standing over her and offering his hand, "Need some help?"

"I don't need anyone's help…"

"Brook," Dillon knew that his niece could be moody, and that was putting it mildly, but he wasn't going to leave her alone. "Come on, it's just a hand. Are you afraid that I didn't wash it? I always wash my hands…"

"If I take your hand will you shut up?"

"You'll have to take it to find out…"

"I hate you," she grumbled, but she did take his hand, using it to pull herself up. When she was standing she dusted off the snow that was on her legs, she could feel some of it seeping in and on her legs.

"You're on your way to becoming a Quartermaine…"

"Don't say that." The last thing that she wanted was to be compared to those people. It was hard enough thinking of reasons why she was related to them, and thinking up excuses to explain why she avoided them whenever possible.

"Did my mother do something? You can't let her get to you, Brook. Take it from me, while I was here… even when she wasn't, she made me little more than her puppet, telling me what to do, how to act… all in some ploy to make sure that when she came back everyone would accept her. And it worked… it worked because I was too stupid to see what was going on."

"Granny's a bitch…"

"Hey…"

"What?" Brook looked at him. "Are you going to tell me that what I said wasn't right?"

Dillon didn't enjoy the fact that someone was calling his mother a bitch, but it only showed how much she still controlled him. Dillon had done it plenty of times in his mind, and each time it made sense, complete sense. Yet there was still that yearning desire to protect her. He had done it so many times in the past, with everyone from his grandfather to even his brother.

Brook took his silence as the answer that she needed, "See? You know I'm telling the truth. Look, Dillon, I'm sure that you would love to have a person who you could say was a good mom, but you got Tracy, and I have her as my grandmother. Face it, pretty boy, we're both screwed because of her."

"So this isn't about my mother?"

"No, I've avoided her, and every time she's tried to get me to do something for her, tried to latch onto my mind and control me I've told her to shove it up her…"

"You're so young, yet you have a mouth on you…"

"I'm named after Brooklyn…"

Dillon grinned, "Point taken. You didn't actually tell her like that, though, right?"

"Why?" She didn't see why it was important. "Are you going to tell me that it was the wrong thing to do?"

"Actually, I was going to tell you that I'm very proud of you for doing something like that, something that I've imagined plenty of times in my own head yet never actually gone through with."

"The difference between you and me, Uncle Dillon, is that Granny doesn't have me on her leash like she does you."

"Don't remind me…"

"Seriously, you've got this great chance to get the hell away from all of them, but you keep on coming back. You're with Jason Morgan, and believe me, I've heard the stories… you don't even have to worry about them trying to come and get you because they know that he'll stop them. You're like at the safest place in the world, but you keep on screwing it up. What the hell is your problem?"

"I go back for you."

"What?"

"You heard me," Dillon looked at her, "I keep on coming back for you, Brook."

"Oh, I not going to let myself be blamed for what's been going on between you and those people…"

"Nobody is blaming you for it, Brook, do you hear me saying that it's your fault? I go because I don't want you to go through the same things that I went through when I was living there. I don't know how long you're going to be around, and for your sake I hope it isn't that long, but all the while I can't just stand around and let you suffer like that."

"Who said I needed your help?"

"You don't, and I see that now, which means that I can stop giving a damn about what happens to you, but I won't, because you're actually the only person that is younger than me in that family and… I don't know, I just feel this need to look out for you."

"I appreciate the gesture, but I can do fine on my own."

"You just fell on the ground."

"I slipped!"

"You were upset about something, now you're trying to hide it. I'm a Quartermaine, remember? I know these things."

Brook sighed, "I don't know why, but I think that you're a pretty decent person, especially given that you spend more time on your hair than most glam rock groups in the 80s…"

"I resent that comment."

"Then stop supporting Aquanet."

"I don't use…"

"You know what I mean!" Brook groaned. "You want me to tell you what's going on, Dillon? Fine, I will. I'm upset because I hate it when I see people who are good people being stuck with people who aren't."

"Are you sure you're not talking about our family…"

"I'm positive."

"So then…"

"It doesn't concern you."

Dillon studied her, looking at her expressions, trying to see if there was something there. He saw it. She was hiding something. "It's a boy, isn't it?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you've only been here for a week… you haven't been around long enough to actually have any other problems. Who is it?"

"It doesn't matter…"

"I thought you didn't get out very much. I mean, the only people that you know that are guys are me and…" and… Dillon rolled his eyes. "Brook…"

"What?" She looked at him, holding back the yearning to run away, the worry that he might have realized what was going on.

"He loves Maxie."

"What makes you think that I'm in love with your friend?"

"Are you?"

"No!"

Dillon shook his head. "You're a horrible liar. You can be the cold and sarcastic kid all you want, but when you're actually caught in a lie you aren't very good at covering it up. Brook… you can't break them up."

"She's horrible for him."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I know!" She knew what Maxie was like. Maxie was everything that Brook hated, and Damian was everything that Brook liked. It only served to logic that the two opposites shouldn't have been involved in any way imaginable. "He deserves someone better."

"You're family, Brook, but Damian is my best friend, someone who I can depend on… and I know that he loves her."

"Only because he hasn't had anyone else."

"Listen to me," Dillon went on the defense for his friends, "I've lived here for a few years and I've seen Maxie Jones get into relationships that have destroyed parts of her soul. She's loved when she knew it was impossible and she let some jackass take advantage of her… all of that changed when she found him. I'm not going to stand by and let you ruin something like that."

"What makes you think you can stop me?"

"Don't cross me, Brook," Dillon warned. "I'm one of the only people that you have on your side. You're a beautiful and attractive young woman, you're going to find someone who loves you, someone who isn't already involved."

Brook sneered, "And I thought I could trust you. Why don't you just leave me the hell alone? You're the one who has only been sticking around because of me, now I'm giving you my blessing to stay the hell away. I'd actually prefer it." Brook stormed off.

Dillon couldn't believe what was going on. His niece was in love with his best friend, who was in love with his girlfriend's sister. And he was stuck in the middle. Only in Port Charles.


	119. Fancy Eating

The Cellar-

"I hate you."

Maxie looked up from her cold tea, "Why would you say something like that?"

"Because you manipulate me, Maxie."

She laughed, "When have I ever manipulated you?"

"Try right now," he looked around at the Cellar, which had once more been ceded back to Carly after Faith left Port Charles, seemingly for good. He'd only been in that one time, and he didn't really want to go back, but there he was, sitting at a table, waiting for someone to come and ask him what he wanted. "Why else would I be here if it wasn't for you?"

"You didn't have to come."

"Oh, but I did have to come. What was it you said? 'I've got you all nice and dressed up, it would be a shame to waste it.' Does that sound about right?"

"Well can you blame me?" Maxie reached over and grabbed his hand, feeling the soft material of his shirt. "How often do I get to see you in actual formal attire? I mean, really. We had our date, and that was it."

"I gave you that because I love you."

"And you're giving me this because you love me, too," Maxie knew that he didn't want to be there, but like the trooper that he was, Damian managed to curb his own reservations and do what would make the people around him happiest. He was like that, always sacrificing a part of him for the good of the people that he cared about. Maxie couldn't understand it at times, but she respected his choices.

"See? Manipulation…"

She pressed her lips to the glass, "I'm not Quartermaine, but I get by."

"I'm just amazed that you were able to get dressed so quickly."

"I knew that time was of the essence. Contrary to popular stereotype, girls can get ready in a few minutes, we just don't like to."

"I told you that you looked beautiful in what you were wearing."

"But I wanted this meal to be special. You were already in something fancy, I couldn't just wear jeans and a blouse, could I?"

Damian smiled, "You're with me, at the Cellar, which is owned by my step-mother. Who is going to tell you that you don't fit the dress code?"

"Maybe I just wanted to look like a princess for once…"

"Maxie…"

"What?" She asked. "This would have been different if we had been together longer, if you had been here while you were in high school, or if you would have come straight here after your graduation, started college at PCU. I believe that we were supposed to be together, don't you?"

"I never loved anyone before I met you, Maxie, that just shows that the person who I had been waiting for all those years was you. I used to think about that a lot when I was in Los Angeles. I didn't let people know about it, but I did. I'd see all my cousins, even the ones that are younger than me, getting involved with people and I could see that they cared about one another, but I didn't have anyone… not until you."

"I still bet that you had plenty of admirers."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you're smart and you're kind. You might have been the quiet person while you were at school, but some girls like that in a boy. They like the whole mystery of what that boy is like. They want to break down his shell…"

"I would like to meet some of these girls that you speak of, see if they actually exist."

"You're looking at one."

"Am I?"

"I went through a period of not knowing how I felt about you, thinking that it was just because I felt grateful for what you had done for me, and then I wanted to know more about you, to see if there was something else, so yeah, I'll admit that originally a part of my attraction came from the fact that I didn't know much about you. I knew that you were Sonny's child and that you would help people when you could, but that was it."

"And now you feel that you know me well?"

She laughed, "Nobody can know you well, Damian."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you like to keep secrets from people, that you refuse to give yourself to anyone but yourself completely. I'm not going to say that I don't have reservations about the way you hide things… but I understand why you do it. You gave yourself to your mother and she left you, I know how that feels… at least somewhat. My mom may not have died, but she betrayed my vision of her."

"Does she even know about us?"

Maxie shrugged her shoulders, "I'm sure my dad or Georgie have told her about us… they talk to her at least once a month, unless she's off doing something else without thinking about how much it would impact her family… again."

"Maxie…"

"Don't, all right?" She gave him a look of pained eyes, the eyes that showed a very obvious fact: no matter how much she tried to hide it, Maxie Jones was still hurt by the fact that her mother wasn't around more. She could say that it didn't matter, but her eyes didn't lie. "Don't tell me that I shouldn't carry everything inside of me, because I'm tired of hearing it… and I don't want to resent you for saying it. I don't want to ruin this moment."

Damian kept his distance from the topic at hand. If Maxie didn't want to talk about it then they wouldn't talk about it, it was that simple. Damian was the type of person who requested that topics be glossed over, especially when it came to his own mother, so who was he to say that Maxie couldn't do the same thing?

"Where the hell is the waiter?"

"If we would have just gone to Kelly's…"

"Yeah, but she might come back."

"Who?"

"Who do you think? Brook Lynn."

"You really don't like her, do you?"

Maxie scoffed, "Generally people have a problem with other people trying to steal their boyfriends away from them, its a rule or something."

"Brook is just a friend, Maxie. Nothing more. I could never give myself to someone else… especially while I still belonged to you."

"Try telling her that."

"Why are you doing this? You seem to have attacked the girl each time she was around us. She's afraid, Maxie, she's in a new town with people that she doesn't know and she's living at the Quartermaine mansion… think about that."

"I wouldn't have any problem with her being around us if she didn't hit on you so often."

"She hasn't…"

"You're too naïve to realize it, Damian," Maxie pointed out. "You've only been in love with me, and you didn't even have to worry about hitting on me because what happened with us just… happened. Nobody expected it to turn into what it's become. But I know what I see, I know how other girls act around you. Some might be afraid of you because of your last name, but Brook's mother is your father's best friend from when they were kids, she probably grew up thinking of Sonny as some sort of surrogate uncle."

"Which would make me her surrogate cousin, and we would be having surrogate incest."

"Don't try and lighten the subject with your humor, no matter how effective it could be." She was holding back the giggles that came with the incest joke. Incest would be eternally funny. "Besides, she's a teenager now, people don't have surrogate uncle's when they're teenagers…"

"Really?"

"What I mean is that she doesn't. She likes you… I know she does. And the fact that she likes you makes me feel threatened."

"Why would you feel threatened by anyone coming onto me? Do you really think that I would do something so horrible like cheat on you?"

"I don't want to believe it, and in the back of my mind I know it's stupid… but I can't help it. Kyle…"

"How many times do we have to go through this? I'm nothing like Kyle. I know how much he hurt you and I'm never going to forgive him for it, but you need to forget that you ever had a relationship with him if you're ever going to grow as a person."

"He did…"

"Did what?"

"Cheated on me. I guess since we weren't in a real relationship he didn't, but at the time I thought that we were and he still did it. I would tell myself that he didn't know what he was doing, that he was drunk or high and too stupid to know better… I'd say that he was a teenage boy, why wouldn't he jump at the chance… but it still hurt."

"Maxie, look at me." He waited for her to stare into his eyes. "I would never, ever, do something like that. It goes against everything that I believe in. Even if Brook does like me, as you seem to be pointing out over and over, it doesn't matter, because I don't think of her as anything more than a friend. Yes, she's beautiful, and yes she has talent that you don't have, but that doesn't mean anything to me. I know who I want, and the person that I want is the person who was there for me when I needed her, the person who drags me to somewhat fancy restaurants when all I want to do is get out of my clothes and into something more comfortable. Do you know who that person is? Because I do, and her name isn't Brook Lynn Ashton, her name is Maxie Jones."

"You really hate the clothes that you're wearing?"

"I think I have an allergic reaction to them…"

"Do you want me to check for a rash later? I'll do it."

"Maxie…"

"I was joking! But I don't understand why you hate looking like this, Damian. You look so great. And your father always wears things like that, all the time."

"I guess in this aspect I take after Uncle Jason more. Of course, he wouldn't be dragged into something like this."

"Don't be too sure," Maxie winked. "I'm almost positive that Courtney could get him to dress up all fancy."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"No matter how much I hate the fact that I'm wearing these clothes for a lot longer than I thought I would… it's all worth it, because I can see the smile on your face, and I know that if I do something that makes you smile like that it doesn't matter how much I hate it… your smile makes it all worthwhile."

"Really? Why should I believe you."

"Because I'm telling you." Damian reached over, pulling a rose out of the small vase that was on the table and handing it to Maxie. "You're always going to be worth it."

Maxie cautiously held the gift, ever mindful of the thorns. She could have been pricked and it wouldn't have mattered. He loved her, and he only loved her. Brook wouldn't steal him away from her, he wouldn't let it happen. She finally believed that.


	120. Small Piece Of Envy

Harbor View Towers-

The date was over. He took her home and watched her walk into the house, then silently cheered a great cheer at the idea of finally being able to get into clothes that wouldn't make him want to scream out in pain. The dress clothes weren't that uncomfortable, but they could have been. It was worse than Chinese water torture, much worse.

Damian walked out of the elevator when it opened on the top floor, his room, and more precisely his closet, seeming so close yet so very far. His head turned towards the front door of the penthouse as he heard someone walking out. Jason's head was pointed down, but he looked over and saw the boy standing there.

Knowing that Jason's eyes never gave away anything in terms of if he was in a good mood or a bad mood, Damian was forced to ask the question that he didn't really need to ask of very many other people, "Everything okay?"

Jason let his hand go from the knob and walked towards his own home, "Everything's fine."

"And even if it weren't, I suppose that you wouldn't even want to tell me, would you?" The realization that Jason and Sonny still kept secrets from him wasn't something that he enjoyed, but he didn't have a choice. Damian had seen their world, he'd been in it, and it scared him. The boy wanted to know when he was needed to help people that he cared about, but if push came to shove he would probably be much happier with life if he was kept out of the mob. The pull, however, could eventually prove too strong.

"I wouldn't want to tell you," Jason had made a history of never lying to anyone that he cared about, and while their relationship was strained, Damian was still on that list, "but if there was something wrong… I probably would."

"Really?"

"You're not a little boy, Damian, you're not like Michael. You've seen what Sonny and I do, you've felt it… you've been a part of it." Jason didn't want him to ever have to worry about those things again, but he wasn't sure that would be the case. Jason could keep everyone safe, but he couldn't work miracles, and even he couldn't stay around forever. "Besides, you're smart and when you want to help people you actually do it. You're not like Carly… you don't go off on and execute some strange plan that only makes things worse."

"Really? Remember Christmas?"

"That was different. If someone was in danger of being hurt you wouldn't have done that, I know that, you know that. Carly wouldn't have cared, she would have done it anyways… and then I would have been stuck picking up the pieces, like I always am."

"Why do you do it?"

"What?"

"Why do you pick up the pieces every time one of us makes a mistake? If you don't want to do it… you've always been one of those people that won't do something that you don't want to do, I've learned that the hard way."

"We all make sacrifices for the people that we care about," Jason replied. "Sometimes my family is more important to me than keeping myself happy. You know how it goes, Damian… look at you. When you came here and you found out, what did you do? You ran away and you thought you would never come back, we all thought that you would never come back… some of us were even hoping that you wouldn't."

"Carly…"

"No, not Carly," Jason knew that she was included, but he wasn't speaking about Carly. "Me."

"You… you didn't want me here?"

"When you came here, when I first found out about you, I didn't know what to think… and then I saw you with Carly and with Michael, too. You were always battling with Carly, and I'm not going to say that it wasn't because she asked for it, because she did, but you have to understand that Carly's always going to be special to me and when I see someone treating her badly it doesn't exactly make me want to go up and give that person a hug."

"Do you even give hugs?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Sorry… continue."

"But that wasn't all that I saw you do. I saw you with Michael… and you were good with him from the start. You want to know why I didn't really want you to come back? Because a part of me was afraid that Michael was going to start phasing me out of his life once he had you. He would come to me whenever he needed someone who wasn't his mother or father… but if he had you, a brother, then why would he need me? I'd already been placed out of a role in Michael's life before… I just didn't want to lose what I had left."

"I… I didn't know that you felt threatened like that." The last thing that anyone expected from Jason Morgan was for him to feel like he was being pushed out of someone's life. People that had Jason in their life were damned lucky to have him, Damian realized that, and he knew that Michael did, too. "But you don't have to worry about it, Uncle Jason… Michael's always going to love you. He's always going to come to you for help when he needs it… just because I'm his big brother now doesn't mean that you're not still important to him."

"I know that now, but at first I wasn't sure. Michael's the type of kid who throws himself completely into new people that come into his life, like he did with Sonny… at least after awhile. But you're right… because he still comes to me, and I'm touched that he does. Just right now he asked me for help on some project that he needs to do for school…"

"What was it?"

"He wanted to do a report on one of the countries of the world… I used to read him books about that when he was little." Fond memories swelled in Jason's mind, the best memories of his life. Holding a child who would always be his in spirit and telling him of the world that he would one day want to explore.

"He wouldn't have come to me for that… I'm horrible with geography."

"I doubt that."

"See? I try and give you credit, but then you go and shut me down." At least they were talking, having an actual conversation. Since the whole ordeal with the Quartermaine's they hadn't done much together.

"Why are you dressed like that?"

"Here I was hoping that you wouldn't notice…"

"How could I not notice?" Jason asked bluntly. "You're wearing a tie…"

"But it's a loose tie!" He took it off, having almost completely tore it off of his body while he was waiting for the elevator to take him to the top floor. "I was at a wedding…"

"Wedding?" Jason thought about who Damian knew that could be getting married. He had been around Port Charles for some time, but hardly enough time to make a lot of connections. Then he realized who it had to be. "Oh…"

"I would have told you… but I didn't know how you would take it."

"She married him again, didn't she?"

"It won't be like…"

"Don't," Jason cut in. "You can tell me that he's changed all you want, but I'm not going to believe it."

"I know, I wouldn't ask you to believe it. I'm sure she would have loved to have seen you there, but…"

"I wouldn't have gone."

"You can at least wish her well when you see her… right?"

"I don't know," Jason walked towards his home, the knowledge that Elizabeth had once more made the huge mistake of marrying Ric Lansing heavy on his mind. Why did it bother him so much? Elizabeth wasn't a part of his life anymore, and he was married to Courtney. It was because Jason still cared about her, the same way he cared about all the other people who he had been with. The passion might have been gone, but that didn't mean that he wanted her to make mistakes like that.

Jason opened the door just as Dillon was walking out. The teenager walked passed Jason, "I thought I heard voices out here…"

"Move."

"Okay…" Dillon backed away from Jason, who seemed possessed by something that he probably couldn't hope to understand. "What was that about?"

"I told him about the wedding."

"What wedding?"

"Uncle Ric's…"

The realization dawned on him. "You were there?"

"You think I would be dressed like this if I weren't doing something that was considered formal?"

"I don't know, you are a Corinthos."

"Don't start with me, Quartermaine… or I'm going to start asking you what each fork is used for."

"I don't know that…"

"Sure you don't."

"No, really, I don't!" He might have known a few of them, but he was hardly a master of the many forks that could be placed on the table at any given time. But he wasn't out in the hallway talking to his friend just because he wanted to have some chitchat, Dillon had a reason for being outside. "Damian, I need to tell you something."

"Okay. Shoot."

"It's about Brook…"

He rolled his eyes, "Please tell me that you're not going to say something like Brook has a crush on me and she wants to break me and Maxie up… because, honestly, I've heard it so many times today that I'm going to scream."

"She does…"

"No she doesn't! Dillon… I don't know where you get these ideas from, but it isn't true."

"She told me!" He didn't know why he was doing it, why he was telling Damian about something that could have been considered a secret, but it involved Damian, and he had a right to know. "Earlier… she told me."

"How do you know she wasn't joking?"

"Because I can tell when she's joking. I don't know her that well, but there was something in her voice… she cares about you, a lot."

"She doesn't even know me."

"I know that! I tried to tell her that it wouldn't work, that you wouldn't even think about doing something with her because you still love Maxie, but she wouldn't listen. I just thought that you should know."

"I should go talk to her…"

"No, don't! She's just going to get angry at me for telling you."

"Did she want me to know?"

"She's a girl… she never wants you to know that she likes you, that's part of the game."

"Dillon… I don't want this girl to think that I have feelings for her when I don't. She's my friend, she's your niece… but that's it."

"I know that, but does she? I don't want her heart to be broken…"

"All right," he sighed. "I won't say anything. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go and take these slacks off before they become grafted to my legs." Damian made the short walk to his door and opened it, trying to keep Brook out of his mind. Everyone was right about her, apparently, and he had been too blind to see it.


	121. Blaming Himself

Note: This is the final Journey chapter of the story, so don't go asking for more, because as much as I would love to provide it for you… it won't come!

Story-

Morgan Household-

She married him again. Jason couldn't believe it. She hadn't even bothered to tell him that she was making the same huge mistake that she had made before. Why didn't she learn? Elizabeth was smarter than that, or at least Jason thought she was. Maybe he was giving her too much credit. What kind of person would marry Ric Lansing not once, but twice? What kind of person would forgive him for everything that he had done to them… Jason knew the answer. Elizabeth. Elizabeth was that person. She was so pure and goodhearted, trying to find the best in everyone, never once giving up on them even after they did horrible things. It was too late for Jason to save her from her own optimism, but he hoped that things would be different, that she would be more careful. Ric had almost killed her before, and Jason didn't want to worry about that happening again. He and Elizabeth really didn't talk anymore, but that didn't mean that he would just gloss over her untimely death.

Courtney was in the kitchen making some tea when she saw Jason walk in. She was used to seeing the look of great concern on her husband's face, it had become something of a second nature to her. But Courtney's first nature was the unyielding urge to make sure that the people that she loved were all right, and there was nobody that she loved as much as her husband.

"Jason…" Her voice came out smooth and supportive. She didn't want to alarm him.

He looked over his shoulder at his wife. Courtney made Jason happier than anyone else, but there was a time when it would have been Elizabeth who was trying to comfort him. That time had passed.

"Are you all right?" She wondered as she walked closer to Jason, ever mindful of the way that he would look at her, if his eyes would close or if they would look somewhere else. Jason was hard to read, but not impossible. Courtney was getting much better at it. "You look like you're worried about something…"

"Nothing that you need to worry about."

"When it concerns you I do need to worry about it," she reached out and touched his shoulder. "I know that you can't tell me what's going on, but you can tell me what you're feeling and I can do everything in my power to help you get through it." She didn't want to know the specifics. If something was troubling Jason as much as it looked then it probably involved a lot of possible bodies riddling the floor. It wasn't the most pleasant sight in the world, but it was something she had become accustomed to.

"Nothing violent, Courtney… just something personal."

"And you've decided that you can't share something personal with me?" The words came out and they had a bitter sting to them. Courtney accepted that Jason couldn't talk about his business with her, but she wouldn't just let him think that he couldn't talk to her about himself. Courtney fell in love with Jason Morgan, not Jason the hit man.

"Courtney…"

"No, Jason," she shook her head. "I'm not going to give up on this one. If it's something that's bothering you then you need to tell me. I'm your wife, you promised not to hold any secrets like this from me… please, don't break that promise."

"It's Elizabeth…"

"Elizabeth?" Courtney and Elizabeth didn't really get along. Courtney didn't feel jealous about the relationship that she had with Jason, they just really didn't get along with one another. The fact that she had once been married to Ric, a man who had kidnapped both her and her best friend on separate occasions, didn't help very much.

"I saw Damian right now… he was wearing a suit."

"Really? A suit?"

"Courtney…"

"Sorry," she had to keep the grin inward, the thought of her nephew all dressed up was worthy of more than a grin. It was worth a good laugh, but Jason was being serious. Not that he ever wasn't being serious, but she told him to tell her about his problem and if she ignored him now that would show that she didn't care, which wouldn't have been true. Courtney would always care about Jason. Always.

"He was at a wedding… her wedding."

"She got married?"

"Yes…"

"To…" Courtney didn't need to finish the question to answer her own question. "No… not him…"

"She married him again, Courtney. Elizabeth married Ric again."

"How could she?"

"I don't know." Jason looked up at the ceiling, not looking for answers, just looking for something that could pull him away from everything. There were times when people did things that were so stupid that he just wanted to not be involved at all. It happened a lot with Carly, but with Elizabeth? He never expected it.

"Why was he even there?"

"Because Elizabeth and Ric mean something to him," Dillon walked back into the house after talking with Damian. "They asked him to be there and he went, that's the kind of guy that he is."

"But it's Ric…" Courtney mumbled.

"Ric saved his life twice, Courtney," Dillon reminded her. "I know you don't like the guy, I don't really like him either, but Damian does… and it's because he likes Ric as much as he does that he decided to go and watch his uncle get married. No matter what you feel about Ric, either of you, or Sonny, you can't tell him who he can and can't care about."

"Dillon," Jason glared, "could you go somewhere else?"

Dillon felt the icy glare of Jason Morgan chill him to the very bone. "I'm going to go and… edit… or something…"

"Good idea," Jason watched the boy leave them alone. He didn't need Dillon's speech, it didn't help with his situation. It only made things worse.

"You didn't have to be so cold…"

"Courtney, I just wanted him to leave us alone."

"He's right, though," she lowered her eyes. "I don't have the right to tell Damian who he can care about… and Ric did save him after he got hit by that car… I just can't stop hating him."

"You don't have to. Ric's a bastard and he doesn't deserve anybody's love. Eventually they'll both see that."

"She married him… after everything that he's done… after he almost killed her."

"I know, Courtney, I know."

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean? How can you ask me what's wrong when I just told you that Elizabeth is once again married to some sick, twisted bastard!"

"Jason…"

"I'm sorry," he apologized immediately following his outburst. "I'm just so angry about it…"

"Do you still…"

Jason quickly grabbed her hand, "I do not love Elizabeth, Courtney, but I'm always going to care about her. She helped me so many times… but not as much as you have. Because I care about her… that's why I'm so upset about what she's doing. She's young and beautiful… she could have found someone who would make her happy, and instead she goes with Ric Lansing…"

"I know how much it hurts…"

"Do you think it was my fault?"

"What?"

"Do you think she went with him because of me? Because I scared her so much that she ran into the arms of someone who was on the right side of the law? Elizabeth hated what I did, Courtney… even more than you do, but she couldn't find a way to accept it."

"Jason… it isn't your fault."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Courtney leaned against his shoulder, "Nothing is ever your fault, Jason… not when it comes to things like that. You loved Elizabeth once, and you still care about her… she's lucky that you do, but you can't help her now. She made a mistake, she's got to realize it herself."

"Damian said she would have wanted me there."

"The present would have been nice, if nothing else."

"Courtney…"

"I'm kidding, Jason," she smiled. She wouldn't have gotten Elizabeth and Ric anything good anyways, probably something for the goodwill store. "Elizabeth would have loved for you to be there, but I'm sure she understands why you didn't go."

"I wasn't invited."

"Do you understand why you weren't invited?"

"Because I would have killed Ric?"

"Something like that."

"This is all getting harder."

"What do you mean?"

"Everything… life. Why can't it get any easier?"

"Because it wouldn't be life if it got less complicated," Courtney said sympathetically. She understood that Jason carried more weight on his shoulders than almost any other human being. Everyone's problems suddenly became Jason's problems, and it wasn't fair. People knew that it wasn't fair, yet they continued to do it. She was one of them.

"Sonny never wanted Ric dead because of their mother… and now, even if Sonny did, I'd have to worry about how Damian would take it."

"I will say this about Ric… he's managed to put on the act that he cares about Damian better than I would have expected."

"He followed the boy into thinking that he does. Have you ever thought that…"

"Of course not," Courtney shook her head. "Ric Lansing isn't capable of loving anyone else but himself… and even that is a questionable statement."

"I just wish I could have stopped it from happening."

"You can't save everyone, Jason, no matter how hard you try. But you show that you're better than most people because you do try. We're always going to love you for that, and nobody loves you more than me."

"Thank you…"

"For what?"

"For not letting me stay quiet about this. Talking to you, it really helped."

She snuggled against his arm, "What good is a wife if she can't help her husband through his troubles? You can always come to me, Jason, I'll always want to help you." Courtney closed her eyes as she rested her head on Jason's chest, feeling him gently brush her hair with his fingers. He was troubled, but she would be his salvation. Elizabeth failed, Courtney wouldn't.


	122. Time Together

Tamara- Thank you for the review, as you can see, I put both Courtney and Jason in to appease the all consuming need for Journey, but that's it… at least for the rest of the story.

Note: I couldn't end the story without one more Damian and Michael chapter. It just felt wrong. So, here we go.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

He never was the type of person who got dressed in pajamas abnormally early. Even though it was nighttime in Port Charles, he didn't switch from the suit of death to more comfortable sweatpants and a crewcut shirt, instead going with the old and always reliable jeans and a t-shirt. It sure as hell beat the suit, though, that much was certain. They really should have put labels on those things, 'will cause significant amounts of chaffing in short time.' The warning wouldn't sell many shirts, but it would be honest. But since when was advertising honest?

Damian walked up the stairs towards Michael's room. The door was halfway open, he gave the door a gentle knock, poking his head inside. The boy was hard at work on his bed, looking at books and writing things on a pad of paper. Michael was a scholar waiting to happen, most children his age didn't have any sort of study habits. If they were blood, Damian would have said it came from him, but it probably came from the Quartermaine's… not all of their gifts were as horrible as people wanted them to seem. The boy didn't look up at the knock, perhaps he was so engrossed in his activity that nothing else mattered, but everyone needed a break from time to time. "Michael," he spoke softly, "can I come in?"

"If you want."

Damian took the invitation and walked inside the room, looking around at all of the things that Michael had accumulated. Christmas had been kind to the boy, and why wouldn't it have been? Michael deserved everything that he received and more… nobody his age should have been expected to put up with everything that Michael was expected to put up with. The constant questions and brushings off by the adults. It would have driven Damian insane, and while Michael obviously didn't care for the methods that the adults utilized he also didn't let it break him. "I half expected you to be playing your new video game and using one of those books to cover it up from dad or Carly."

"School's starting tomorrow… this project is due at the end of the week."

"Uncle Jason said that he helped you pick a country."

"Uncle Jason always helps me when I need him."

"That's because you mean a lot to him," Damian walked over, looking at the book. "So, what country did you pick?"

"Switzerland."

"They make good cocoa."

Michael looked up at him, an eyebrow raised, "What are you talking about?"

The young man gave an uneasy chuckle, "You know, the cocoa in Switzerland, the hot chocolate, it's supposed to be the best. That's why they have that Swiss Mix stuff at the… oh, forget it." Obviously, his attempts at humor had fallen on deaf ears.

"I would have asked you for some help… but I didn't want to bother you."

"Michael… you can always come to me for help on your homework, you know that. You should have gone to Uncle Jason for this assignment, though… I'm not very good with geography."

"You don't have time for me anymore."

"What makes you say that?"

Michael looked at him, putting the pencil down on the pad, "You don't! I know you don't… you don't spend any time with me anymore, you're always with Maxie, or with Dillon or someone else, but never me."

"I try and spend time with you…"

"Well you're not trying hard enough! When you came here you were always spending time with me… even when you weren't living here anymore you took the time to be with me because you said you cared about me."

"I do!"

"Then why don't you do things with me anymore, Damian?" Michael asked, tears of frustration beginning to well up in his eyes, "Are you mad at me or something?"

"No… of course not."

"Then what is it?"

"Michael… I don't know what to tell you. You still mean so much to me, you always will, but I'm not always going to be around when you want me to be."

"You're never around anymore, that's the problem."

"I wish I could do something to help make it better, kid, but I can't… its part of who I am."

"I just want to spend time with my big brother…"

"Hey," Damian finally sat on the bed next to Michael, "I'm right here, and I'm not going to be going anywhere unless you want me to go or something happens. I'm so sorry that you feel that I don't spend enough time with you, but you have to believe that it doesn't mean that I don't care about you. You're my little brother, Michael, you're the reason why I'm even here right now…"

"Really?"

He nodded, "If dad wouldn't have had you I wouldn't have stuck around. Morgan's a baby, Michael, he wouldn't have had enough time to even make any sort of connection to me if I had stayed away, but you… you knew who was, what I was to you, and you accepted that I was a member of your family before anyone else did… and I accepted that you were a part of my family, too. I never had a little brother before you, but I've always known how important it is that the little brother have someone to look up to… and since you got stuck with me… well, that's why I stayed."

"So… you stayed because of me?" Michael had been altogether unaware of his part in keeping Damian around, but now that he knew he was very happy about it. Yes, his brother had taken time to himself, time that he didn't spend with Michael, and it did hurt, but Michael still looked up to Damian, still loved him.

"I stayed because of you."

"I didn't know that."

"You don't understand how important you are to the people around you yet, Michael, but you are very important to all of us. Just don't use it as a way to get yourself any new toys or video games and you should be fine."

"When can we do something again?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know… you know how I'm going to start working at the hospital tomorrow?"

"Daddy said something about it, I knew you would be a doctor."

"I'm not a doctor yet, but I'm going to be working with them a lot… and when I do that I have to stay at the hospital for days at a time, I can't even come home to sleep in my bed."

"Why?"

"Part of the process… they try and see which of us isn't strong enough to handle it."

"Are you strong enough?"

"I don't know… I hope so." It would have been really horrible if he spent all those years trying to be a doctor only to crash and burn because he couldn't hang with the procedures.

"I think you're strong enough."

Damian smiled, "Thanks… that means a lot coming from you." Now he had motivation. Michael wanted him to succeed, and if he failed it would have an adverse impact not only on Damian, but on Michael as well. The boy was still young enough to believe that his big brother was something of a god, infallible and strong.

"Can I come see you while you're working?"

"As long as you're not actually sick… yeah."

"When?"

"I don't know, whenever I have a break… assuming I have a break." 72 hours of nonstop work didn't seem possible, they had to let him sleep and eat sometimes, right? Bobbie would save him from killing himself… wouldn't she?

"Does Maxie know that you'll be busy so long?"

"Yes, she does, but she works at the hospital too, remember? So we'll be together sometimes… not that I'll be able to focus on her all the time, or much…"

"She'll get lonely without you."

"She knows how much I care about her, Michael, but she also knows how important this is to me, just like you do. I'm going to be working at a very good hospital, and it might be really stressful, but as long as I have people like you and dad and everyone else looking out for me I'm pretty sure I can do it."

"What if you can't?"

"Then I can't."

"That's it?" Michael didn't understand how he could be so blunt about it. "If you can't do this you just stop and nothing else happens?"

"You can always start doing something new with your life, Michael," Damian didn't want to do anything else, but being a doctor in actuality was something that was considerably different from being a doctor in his dreams. "I don't know what I would do, but I would find something else to keep myself going."

"You could play the piano."

"I'm not good enough to play the piano as a professional." He never was good enough, but if he had any chance of doing it that chance was gone after his mother died and he gave up doing it.

"I think you're good."

"Why don't you try it while I'm at the hospital?" Damian suggested. "Just don't break any of the keys or something…"

"Could you help me with something?"

"Yeah… sure. What?"

Michael handed him the book that he was looking at. "I don't get what this sentence is telling me…"

Damian looked at the sentence, it used works like economics and importation, words that Michael probably, and apparently, didn't understand. "It's saying that Switzerland makes a lot of money by importing things like watches… and cocoa."

"You were right about the cocoa?"

"According to this book? Yes, I was."

"That sounds good right now…"

"It does, doesn't it?" Maybe not cocoa from Switzerland, but would Michael really know the difference? "You want some?"

"Do we have any?"

"Only one way to find out, and if we don't, we'll go to Kelly's and get some… if you want."

"I'll go check the kitchen!"

"Don't make a mess!" Damian called out as the boy darted away. Yes, he was distracting his little brother from doing his schoolwork, and yes, that was irresponsible, but Michael was just a little boy, he had his whole life ahead of him, and hopefully Damian would be able to help him grow up into a good person, the person that Damian knew Michael could be.


	123. Treat Me Right

Night, Corinthos Household-

It was all going to change when he woke up in the morning. Everything that he knew would be different. He wouldn't wake up and just be Damian, he would be a person who people went to for answers, for help. He'd spent the better part of a decade preparing himself for the moments that were to come, but, as always, Damian second guessed himself. He wasn't confident enough in his own abilities, even if everyone else was. But he knew that he had to give it a try. Everything that he needed to know was somewhere in his brain, he just hoped that he could get it out in time.

In the meantime, he was going to make the best of his final moments in the house as a normal person. Damian sat there on the bench in front of the keys, the cover protecting them from dust and getting hit by anything, his elbow propped up against the cover, using it to support himself. His mother's picture was inches away. So much of her essence was captured in that picture. It was one of the last pictures that she took before things started to slip, before her health went down. At the end she was little more than an animated corpse. Everything that made her so vibrant was gone. Looking at that picture, Damian couldn't help but think about how it all ended. A horrible moment in his life, quite possibly his defining moment.

Sonny watched Damian from the hallway. If his son was conscious of his presence, Damian hadn't yet shown it. Sonny knew what was going to happen. He might not have been the most educated person on the planet, but he knew what happened to people when they became interns. A part of Sonny worried that he would be a target. People who wanted to hurt Sonny through his son wouldn't take any sort of thought into killing innocent people in the hospital.

"I thought I had developed some sort of immunity to your penance stare… but I guess I didn't."

"What are you talking about?"

"That thing you do," he looked at his father. "Where you just stand there and look, trying to break people down, make them confess to you anything that they did that was wrong. You're good at that… you even get to me. I have, however, managed to gain some immunity towards your dimples, but I guess I can just chalk that one up to not being one of your many lovers."

"Is there a point to this?"

"I don't know, dad. Is there a point to anything?"

"What brought this along?"

"Your stare, like I said. You wonder why people think that you're scary, dad… you are. Even I wonder what you're going to do sometimes. I can't always feel safe around my own father."

"Are you threatened by me?"

"Not threatened, no… intimidated. Everyone is… at least people who don't know you that well."

"You don't know me that well?"

"No, I don't." Damian pulled the cover off the keys, "But I'm all right with that… at least as much as I can be. Dad, you're a complex person, I could be your son for another sixty years and I would still be wondering what went on in your head."

"I don't want to be a stranger to you."

"You're not. I might not know everything about Sonny Corinthos, but I know what I need to know. I know that he cares about people, that he's willing to do anything to protect the people that he loves, and that he'll always be there for them when they need him, no matter what. Most people don't even have that many good qualities about them, and they don't have to worry about the stigma that you do."

"Did you think it would come down to this?" Sonny walked in front of the piano. "When you came here… is this how you envisioned it all?"

"No…" his eyes turned up to Sonny, "it's better than I could have ever thought."

"So now where do we go?"

"I wish I knew. But nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow, do they?"

"You're afraid, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"To the people who know you best, yes. And I'm lucky to be one of those people."

"You think you know me well?"

"You don't?"

Damian started to play a light song, focusing on the keys, but talking to his father at the same time. He was good at multitasking. "I don't think that anyone can know me that well, dad… because I don't even know myself that well anymore. Things were easier when she was here. I knew who I was, what I was… after she died I had to start all over, and I'm still not done finding myself."

"Why do you do this? All the second guessing that you place yourself under. Does it make you feel better about yourself?" Sonny loved his child dearly, but his self-pity act was one that Damian didn't need to go through, ever. He should have known who he was.

"There are times when I just want to jump out of my skin, dad… take a look at this person that I am, try to be objective about him. Then I might be able to find what motivates him… what makes him tick, but I can't do that."

"You're motivated by your strong sense of morality," Sonny finally took a seat next to Damian on the bench, not touching any of the keys. "I knew that right after I met you… when you left because of what happened between us."

"I found a way to accept everything that happened. I don't know how I did it, but I did. If you would have asked me a year ago that I would be here, with you, accepting what you did, I would have told you that you were insane."

"You're growing as a person."

"Or maybe I'm just giving up on my ideals. Maybe this was just the first step in making me emotionally numb."

"I think you're the strongest person that I've ever met."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really, and I'm sure that plenty of other people would agree with me. You went through so many traumatic things growing up, Damian. You grew up without a father, in a place like Los Angeles were everything could have gone wrong, where you could have become a thug just like so many other people. You lost your mother when you were still a teenager, making you basically an orphan because I wasn't there for you at the time, but you kept on following the path that you thought was right. You didn't give up when Ana died, you didn't take another road… you used your pain to make something of yourself. That's something that I could have never done."

"Grandpa said that if I failed it would be all right."

"You could never fail, not in my eyes."

"But what if I can't make it work? What if I can't be a doctor?"

"Well what about being a nurse? They don't do as much as doctors do, and they're still very important to saving people's lives. They don't make as much money, but you'll never have to worry about money anyway."

"I think if I fail at this I'll just give up medicine altogether. And then I'll have wasted almost a decade of my life."

"You wouldn't have wasted it, because everything that you learned you can still use, even if you're not a doctor. Were you a doctor when you pulled that bullet out of Jason's knee? Were you a doctor when you saved that man who was having a seizure at Kelly's? Just because you don't have some piece of paper that proves you went to medical school and completed everything doesn't mean that you can't help people."

"Can I ask you for a favor…"

"You know you can."

"Be my father."

Sonny didn't understand the question. "What?"

The keys stopped being played as Damian focused on the man that was next to him. "Be my father, dad… order me to do something, tell me what you want me to do."

"I don't think I can…"

"Please…"

"Why do you want me to do this?"

"Because I can feel like I'm doing something for you if you tell me that you want me to do it. I can work harder to make you proud of me… but that's only if you expect me to do something great with my life."

"You're doing something great already."

"Dad… please."

Sonny could see the vulnerability in Damian's eyes. He was a fine young man, but there was always going to be a part of him that was just a little boy. The part of him that needed daddy to tell him what to do. Sonny never thought that he would really get the chance to do something like that with Damian, but now that he was being asked to actually be a father as opposed to just being someone who was his father, Sonny knew what he needed to do. "I want you to go to that hospital tomorrow and I want you to do the best that you can."

"Thanks…"

"Anytime," Sonny reached over and hugged the boy. "You know what else I want you to do?"

"What?"

Sonny grabbed the book of sheet music and turned to a page that he had seen while he was alone. Sonny had no dreams of learning how to play the piano, but he had dreams of hearing songs being played. "I want you to play this for me."

"Danny's song?"

"Your grandmother used to love this song… sometimes she would sing it to me while I was trying to sleep. She still did it, right up to the time that I had to leave. It helped me when I thought that everything was crumbling around me, but she'll never sing it to me again."

"All right…" Damian knew what an important person Adella was to Sonny. He could see parts of Mike in his father, but he knew that there were parts of his grandmother, who he had never met, that also made Sonny who he was. Without her, Sonny wouldn't have had his faith, and at times that was the only thing that could get him through the day. Sometimes it was all that they had.

Outskirts of Port Charles-

John Durant drove into the Port Charles city limits, looking at the sign that showed he was entering the down. "Say goodbye to the life that you used to know, Sonny, because it will all be over by the time I get done with this town." A sadistic smile on his face, John Durant drove into the town, unaware of just how much of an impact the town would have on him, and he on the town.

Fin

End Note: Well, that's it for the story. Yes, I know, I ended on a cliffhanger, a big cliffhanger and now you all have to wait a whole summer and maybe a little more for the story to start up again. Well, sorry, but that's just how it goes. I know I had more plans for this story that I couldn't get into because of time constraints, but that's why I'm doing another sequel, to do what I couldn't do here. It will certainly be paced faster than this one was… and will have more drama to it. So much more drama. The things that I hinted to in this story, such as Brook's crush on Damian, John's attempts at destroying Sonny and Jason, and a whole lot of other things will all be covered. But, if there's things that you might want to see, go ahead and say them. I can't and won't guarantee that they'll be there, but if they fit with what I'm doing I intend on it. A few things that WILL NOT happen… Kristina won't be revealed to be Sonny's daughter, and it is highly doubtful that Sonny will realize Carly's part in Damian's hospitalization. The last one is a maybe, the first one is a sure as hell not going to happen.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

Until next time,

Set


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